A very windy day with a SW>5 increasing 6 and gusting near gale 7 by midday with a few light showers a.m. on a 100% cloudy sky at 11 degrees. The wind remained strong throughout the afternoon but reading on the Queensbury Beaufort scale as ' nobbut a stiff breeze'. Queensbury folk are designed to walk at 45 degrees into the wind but tend to fall over when they get off the bus in Bradford with no wind to support them.
Leeshaw reservoir was very quiet this morning in the strong wind with the only signs of visible migration being a few Woodpigs and a handful of Starlings otherwise empty skies apart from the gulls.
Yesterdays Wigeon was still present in with Mallards, first on the water and then in the goose field as I was leaving, whilst 5 Meadow Pipits were on the shore and fields which could be late movers or over wintering birds.
With the wind still blowing mid afternoon I cautiously headed for Ogden in hopes of downed waterfowl looking for shelter. Although it is school holidays I depended on the bad weather to keep the crowds away which worked well with a pleasing lack of public present.
Too dark to scour the Alders for passerines although a nice flock of Chaffinch were down on the shore eating their favourite weeds but no Brambling as yet but looking good if the water level stays down.
A good selection of gulls on the water and shore to check through but failed to find a Med or Yellow Legged but post roost numbers building nicely so worth regular checks.
Leeshaw
1 Wigeon
3 Herring gull
12 LBB gull
c 150 BH gull
5 Mipits
+ usual sp.
Ogden
21 Chaffinch
1 Kingfisher
8 Herring gull
19 LBB gull
12 Common gull
c 50 BH gull
+ usual sp.
BS