A terrible mornings weather with a strong SW>5-6 gusting 7 with heavy horizontal drizzle at 6 degrees.
No birding this morning in the conditions so just a quick look back at November birds found at Ogden where I have spent most of my mornings recently with Fly Flatts and Leeshaw not playing the game.
Looking around at other local site reports Ogden seems to have stood out well, mainly due to the low water level where ample weed was exposed, which pulled in the wildfowl.
Teal were present throughout the month, peaking at 38 on the 24th Oct then slowly moving off as the water began to rise. Tufted duck settled, which is a bit unusual at this site, with 6 remaining through October and well into November.
Wigeon were present throughout October with 2 birds present then joined by another 3 early November before all moving on. A nice surprise on 6th Nov when 1m and 2 f Mandarin duck appeared but were gone the next day whilst a Little Grebe kept making an appearance at the NE end of the water.
The next special appeared on the 27th Nov in the form of a drake Goldeneye staying 1 day only. With all these species, as well as a very high count of Mallard and the long staying female Goosander it made Ogden a pleasant site to watch.
The woods kept reasonably busy with Goldcrest, Bullfinch, Chaffinch and even a quick, one off sighting, and grim photo, of a Brambling. A flock of around 30 Siskin keep being seen but so far I've only managed to pin down twos and threes in with the Bullfinch flock. Unfortunately, no sign of Redpolls as yet but I'm sure I'll nail them this month.
Plenty other common woodland species seen as well as Raven, Buzzard, 2 Kingfisher and 2 Dipper but a poor show with the gulls keeping to low counts of small gull along with a few Herring and Lesser Black Backed. See what December produces.
A better morning for tomorrow with cloudy sunshine on a light SW at 4 degrees.
BS