Most of the snow had gone by this morning with a milder temperature of 3 degrees but as usual, when the temperature rises, in comes the fog. Ogden was very dark and misty with drizzle throughout on a moderate SW>3.
A much quieter circuit of the water this morning with once again, nothing down the west bank and nothing on the water, other than a few small gulls and 2 Herring gull.
The highlight was 2 Dippers by the 'Parakeet Pond', which I named after having a Ring Necked Parakeet there back in the 1990s. The next area of shale and water, named by me around the same time, is Dipper Dyke where Dippers were a common feature but it is now sadly overgrown. If I get a Ringed Neck Parakeet at Dipper Dyke now I'll just have to swop the names over. The only other 2 areas I have named are, 'Passerine Alley' on the east bank of Ogden, which was always a hot spot for moving passerines and where I re-located a Yellow Browed Warbler, back in August 2012. This bird was first found by Denise Shields earlier in the day on the west bank. The bird stayed into a second day.
The other area I named, many moons ago, is 'NK pond' at Soil Hill. A small area of water brought into use by Nigel K. at the bottom of the north slope. This small pond has attracted several wildfowl species including Wigeon and Teal and the surrounding shrub attracts several interesting passerines as well as Jack Snipe.
Back to Ogden, with around a dozen Long Tailed Tits moving rapidly through the waterside trees plus a couple of Goldcrest, whilst a Kingfisher flew from the NW corner towards the east bank giving me just a flash of blue as it disappeared over the water.
Another dark wet day forecast for tomorrow with light rain and mist on a light SW at 4 degrees.
BS