A very dark cloudy morning at Leeshaw with a light SW>2 at 5 degrees . Patches of brighter sky letting the sun through briefly but mainly black clouds with light drizzle. Visibility good.
Taking advantage of less works traffic at the Denholme Gate 3 way lights I headed for Leeshaw reservoir and was surprised that the road from the Keelham lights to Halifax/Keighley Road has now re-opened making one less problem for weekday visits. The next problem being that the main road through Oxenhope is to be closed from the 21st of this month for 3 weeks so Leeshaw will be out of the running from then until the middle of November.
Plenty activity at the reservoir with several grounded migrants but nothing moving sky-wise other than the local species. There are usually several Redwings in the Hawthorn hedges by now but running late this year.
Greylag geese are now well outnumbering Canadas with the sky full of noisy birds moving field to field. Just 6 Mallard on the water as well as 2 Cormorant plus the gulls with a good count of Black Headed along with Common, LBB and Herring but all at distance on the far shore so too far to pick out a Med gull, even through the scope in the dark light.
Looking dry for morning with cloud and some sun on a light WNW starting off at 1 degree early doors.
LEESHAW
19 LBB gull
14 Common gull
2 Herring gull
c 150 Black Headed gull
c 200 Greylag
28 Canada
6 Mallard
2 Cormorant
4 Lapwing
3 Pied Wagtail
c 40 Meadow Pipit
7 Wren
2 Robin
6 Reed Bunting
3 Stonechat
5 Linnet
c 30 Goldfinch
+ usual sp.
BS