Well today I paid for 2 previous spring like mornings above the fog with a full day of dense fog up here on the tops and all birding abandoned. November has been a poor month both weather wise and bird wise with very little to get excited about. I,ve had 5 days fogged off with no birding and visited 4 venues throughout the month, Fly Flatts, Ogden, Mixenden and Doe Park, with the absence of Leeshaw which is usually one of my main winter venues but due to road closures and a long detour round I,ve had to give it a miss to press.
Mixenden was bottom of the chart remaining quiet throughout the month and other than a few gulls on the water and a Buzzard overhead it failed to produce. Not even the annual Goldeneye have shown yet but pinning my hopes on the star December bird I got last year when a red head Smew turned up with the Goosanders.
Doe Park and the surrounding gull fields have,nt rewarded me as yet with very few gulls and nothing on the water although I did get a good display of passerines there with several Bull and Greenfinch plus winter thrushes etc.
Ogden produced Goldeneye, Teal and Goosander on the water with some half decent counts of gulls whilst the 80+ flock of winter Chaffinch produced several continentals and one brief view of a female Brambling. Siskin and Redpoll were in the Alders along with the usual Tit flock containing Nuthatch, Treecreeper and Goldcrest.
This month my patch at Fly Flatts has been very difficult and hit and miss trying to turn something up but has had its moments. Several skeins of trans Pennine Pink Footed geese have crossed over both east and west though several has passed well to the south and north of me. Wigeon and Goosander have over flown me as well as Golden Plover and Cormorant whilst there was always small passerines in the compound with Meadow Pipit, Reed Bunting, Wren and Stonechat.
Raven are a daily sighting as well as raptors with sometimes 3 Peregrines together along with Sparrowhawk, Kestrel and Buzzard whilst a Red Kite flew over the east ridge.
The highlight of the month, raptor wise, was watching a distant Buzzard sp. which I,m putting as 90% sure it was Rough Legged Buzzard as it headed south over Tatty Pie Hill being mobbed by a much smaller Common Buzzard. This sighting coincided with birds appearing on the east coast a few days later.
I had it brought to my attention about the pale phase Common Buzzard around the area which I have seen and checked photographs and this was definitely not the bird I saw.
Nothing showing on the water other than a few gulls plus the surprise visit of a good count of Canadas along with a single Greylag and Barnacle. These were the Cold Edge geese but unusual for them to visit Fly Flatts this time of year.
December tomorrow and still in the poor weather forecast but it can,t be worst than November,can it? Target birds for December being :- Snow Bunting, Shorelark, Waxwing, Pintail, Smew, Diver sp. and Crossbill plus any white winged gulls of course.
These are all possibles without being over ambitious.
BS