Fog/Gales/Heavy Rain= Match abandoned.

 With fog over Fly Flatts this morning then near gale force winds and heavy horizontal rain this afternoon today was down to a few very wet dog walks and birding put on hold.

                 With the month end here and wader season as good as over I,ve put together a few specials I,ll be expecting, taken from the last 2 year Octobers. The only waders I,ve ever had at Fly Flatts during October is an odd Dunlin and Ringed Plover plus Jack Snipe so the main species I,ll be concentrating on is winter ducks, geese and swans between Fly Flatts, Mixenden, Ogden and Leeshaw, plus of course gulls around various local sites.

                                                Mixenden Whooper Swan

                                                Mixenden Goldeneye

                                           Mixenden LBB gull, intermedius.

                                      Mixenden Ring Necked Parakeets

                                             Leeshaw Teal

                                      Perseverance Road Black Redstart 

                                           Raggalds Flood, Wigeon

                                                    Redcar Tarn, Shoveler

                                                   Redcar Tarn, Caspian Gull

                                                  Leeshaw, Teal

                                            Fly Flatts, distant Ring tail Hen Harrier

                                             Fly Flatts, Whooper Swan

                                           Thornton fields, ad Med gull

                                     Thornton fields, 1st winter Med gull

                                                            adult

                                                      1st winter

                                                            Leeshaw  Wigeon

                                                     Fly Flatts   Black Redstart

                                            Fly Flatts    2 f Pintail with Wigeon

                                            Fly Flatts Wigeon

                                           Fly Flatts Wigeon.

                                         Fly Flatts, Stonechats over-winter at this site.

                                                        Fly Flatts,  a different Black Redstart

                                      Thornton fields, another 1st winter Med gull

                                                            LH bird

                                                           Oxenhope Pintail                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

                                           Doe Park,  Wigeon   

                                    Fly Flatts, yet another Black Redstart , 3 together at one point.

BS

Foggy Fly Flatts a.m./ Ogden gull check p.m.

 

FLY FLATTS                 Low cloud base over the 'Nab'           

                                      Low count of gulls at Ogden

                                         1 of 5 ad Herring

                                      5 Herring , all argenteus.

Dense fog to start the morning at Fly Flatts lifting slightly but leaving a very low cloud base with horizontal vision only, over the water, remaining throughout the watch. A light NE>2 at 8 degrees.

                                    No sky visibility throughout the watch and nothing around the shoreline. Around 30 Goldfinch were on thistle tops with 8 blogging Mipits on the shore.

                                    The water just held 1 pair of Mallard, 5 Canadas and a single female Tufted duck.

A good long dog walk then up stumps and an early finish as boredom set in.

                                     A quick visit mid p.m. to check the gulls at Ogden found a very low count with around 80 small gulls, 23 LBBs and 5 ad Herring along with a few 1 cy of both species.        

                                   The usual Gt Crested Grebe on the water, now almost in winter plumage, along with 13 Canadas, 1 hybrid Canada and 1 white Greylag.

                                  Very wet and gale force winds promised for tomorrow afternoon which will hopefully stir things up a bit.

BS

Fly Flatts, not one of the better days.

 A duplicate of yesterday mornings weather but slightly less windy still from the NW>3 at 5 degrees with broken cloud and sunshine.

                                           I missed out on any Pinks today with the big move being to the SW of me over Manchester where SJ was enjoying several skeins. I just had a single skein of 21 Greylag high and >SE.

Thanks to blog watcher Peter for a report of a skein over Cooper Lane, Horton Bank Top early morn.

                        Extremely quiet both in the air and on the deck this morning with very little moving and a clear out of small passerines around the compound and on the shore. Even gulls were near non existent for some reason today. Strange how two days with near identical weather conditions can be so different bird wise.

Vis Mig

21 Greylag..................>SE

28 Mipits....................>S

39 Starling.................>NW

11 Jackdaw................>NE

2 Mistle Thrush.........>W

15 Chaffinch.............>W

Present

2 Sparrowhawk

3 Tufted

2 Canada

4 LBB gull

2 BH gull

1 Raven

BS

Fly Flatts, More Pinkies and first Redwings

 

                                                  Goldfinch both moving and blogging

                                                9 Stonechat present

                                                 as well as 5 Reed Buntings

                                       More Pink Footed Geese on the move

                                         Several skeins but mostly small

                                              Scope-able only, LH gull Yellow Legged Herring

An icy cold start to the morning with the first ground frost at 5 degrees on a NW>4 with a mix of cloud and sunshine.

                     Several small passerines blogging and moving but no sign of yesterdays Black Redstart but I,m sure they will be more. The first Redwings headed >W , probably arrived by the moderate north westerlies over the last couple of days, just a day earlier than my previous earliest record.

                  A single adult Yellow Legged Herring gull was on the far NW shore along with LBBs though they soon moved off >SW whilst the Tufted ducks have now moved on.

                 At just short of 0900 hrs the flood gates opened and skeins of Pink Footed geese piled through with 5 relatively small groups apart from 2 very distant skeins heading >W scopeing into the far distance over the Hebden Bridge/ Stoodley Pike area.

Vis Mig

473 Pinkies...............222.>SE      251..>W    51, 31,54, 68, 18 SE     168, 83 W

c150 Goldfinch............>S

8 Redwing..................>W

sev Mipits...................>S

22 Starling..................>NW

6 Alba Wagtail............>S

Present

c 100 Goldfinch

sev Mipits

1 YL Herring gull

14 LBB gull

9 Stonechat

5 Reed Bunting

4 Wren

+ usual sp.

BS