Boxing Day Bonanza.

                                  Mixenden footpath leaves a lot to be desired

                                                   Full to the brim

  And you wonder why I,ve wet feet.

                                   Foxhill Park Flood

        Very distant record shots in poor light Ogden

                        The elusive Kingfisher

A showery afternoon with a strong SW>6 but a big improvement on this morning.
Home from an afternoon therapeutic shopping spree with Lynda it was gear back on and off to Mixenden reservoir.
It was wet and windy as I scaled the embankment and peered over the top carefully to see a female Goosander that had got wind of me and was swimming out of the SW corner. Dumbo me dashed to the top of the banking whilst riving the camera out of the bag, which should have been out ready, only to flush 3 female Goldeneye from the same corner by the ramp. All 4 flew low over the water landing in the NW corner. If I,d have checked the corner first carefully I,d have snapped the Goldeneye before they flew instead of dashing in like a bull in a china shop and ended up with no pics at all.
The walk along the west bank was not easy to say the least as it was ankle deep in mud and a real good test for waterproof boots, which in my case failed, but once my feet were soaked it did,nt matter so I could trudge on regardless.

As I got just over half way on the Goosander headed back to the S end and there was no sign of the Goldeneye or the Goosander again but with the water so chopping they could easily have been missed.

A check of Ogden failed to produce this mornings Goldeneye with just Mallards and small gulls on the water.
A 30 minute stake out finally produced a Kingfisher but very distant by the sluice gate and amazingly whilst I was snapping it a second Kingfisher appeared briefly by the ponds before disappearing below the pump house.
A decent finish to a very hard days birding.
BS

Boxing Day Bash, or in this case, Splash.

                         Gushing down the overflow

                                             Grey day

                                   Flooded promenade

   Soil Hill below dog cack alley just passable

                                   Raggalds Flood

                                     Lappies seem to enjoy it.

With heavy rain through yesterday continuing overnight and turning torrential this morning it was,nt the best time to go birding but with 4 days off work time is precious and the dogs needed walking anyway.
The drive to Ogden was horrendous with several areas of flooding on the roads so a few diversions were necessary. I like to see these clever drivers who plough through the deep water at speed not knowing the cold water on the hot catalystic convertor can smash it or worse still get water in the ECU, both very expensive but good for the garage.
Ogden was grey with the rain piling down making scanning through wet and steamed up bins difficult but did manage to pick out a female Goldeneye at the north end of the water diving, probably the Mixie bird.
The Kingfisher made a brief appearance whilst the Dipper was nearby.
Someone that had tried to walk around the water said the reservoir had breached the west side path.
Raggalds flood was well and truly flooded but held 1 pr Mallard, 17 Lapwing and several small gulls.
Just got a text from daughter Belinda who lives on the hillside at Kebroyd saying part of Sowerby Bridge is under water.
BS

Christmas day Bash

                               A very grim Mixenden Reservoir

After a dry bright start a day of thick fog and heavy rain up here on the tops.
By 1400 hrs I was feeling like a caged bear so with the family Christmas bit done in the morning and Lynda wallowing in her presents it seemed like a good time to slip out for a quick check of Mixenden.
Its not as sad as it sounds really with Lynda not being able to eat or drink Christmassy things and me doing the same in sympathy it was just like a normal day for us, after a hectic morning that is with the house full of kids, grandkids and dogs.
Mixenden was just below the cloud base but marred by heavy rain and poor visibility so it was just a matter of a short scan and away.
One of DJSs f Goldeneye was showing at the north end along with a female Goosander and a pair of Mallards.
Around 100 pre roost small gull came in on the water at 1510 hrs.
Its all ova bart shouting now so back to normal tomorrow if this lousy fog has shifted,
BS

Early Christmas present, Pinkies over the village.

        Just a few small gulls present on Raggalds Flood

                                          38 Common gulls in Foxhill Park

        Then along came the big stuff, 64 Pinkies.

            Pics taken from garage car park.

After a wet and windy start the day brightened up but remained windy with a SSW>  5 blowing.
A Christmas Eve dinnertime dash produced next to nothing with Raggalds Flood holding just a handful of small gulls and no birds present on the Pit Lane site.
Shelf Moor trailer park and surrounding fields were void of any signs of bird life whilst a tour round Corporal Hill, Green Lane and Jackson Hill just produced a few small gulls and corvids.
Back at work,miffed and an empty camera when lo and behold a life saving text from my Wibsey look out Peter Turner saying Pinkies on their way .
This Christmas it was,nt a star that appeared in the East but a beautiful skein of Pink Footed geese which flew over the mill low down where I could only see them between the chimney pots and headed west being picked up moments later by DW over Fleet Lane heading for Ogden.
Apologies for not being able to alert NK , whose house they flew over , but they were on me and away in seconds being so low in the wind.
Many thanks to Peter for the quick alert call once again.

Four days off now so better get the camera batteries charged ready.
Good news today after a tea time trip to Bingley Yorkshire clinic where Lynda had the bandage removed and the official ok for her to do her own hair and change the duvet cover, great stuff.

WISHING YOU ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HEALTHY, BIRD PACKED NEW YEAR.                           Brian and Lynda

Queensbury Today

              Clear blue skies full of people jetting off for Christmas.

                                           Foxhill Common gull

An ideal birding day today with bright and clear blue skies , far too nice to be stuck in the garage and busy with the pre Christmas panic but only one day to work now and then a break.
Skies were busy early morn with several Wood and Feral pigeons over as well as Stock Doves in no general direction.
A noticeable lack of Fieldfare and Redwing over in the last few weeks though I,m getting reports of Fieldfares in fields around Oxenhope.
Queensbury was quiet other than some large numbers of Starlings moving around garden feeders plus the usual Common and Black Headed gull in Foxhill Park at lunchtime.
Got several customer dog walkers,who do Ogden daily, watching out for swans on the water ready to give me a call.
BS

A Reet Good Soaking

Another of those deteriorating days with a bright sunrise then by midday a howling SSW>6 with torrential rain which as usual tallied with dinner time dog walking. Foxhill park held 18 Common gulls all heads down into the wind but not seeming too concerned with the rain.
A dash down to Shelf Moor trailer park produced just 3 Lapwing and around 20 small gulls. For some reason the annual winter Lapwing gathering has moved up to Pit Lane even though the habitat at Shelf Moor has,nt changed.
Two more days to work then a long weekend off followed by a three and a half  day week next week so hopefully I,ll be able to liven this ultra boring blog up a bit.
BS

Solstice day at last

Some from Ogden yesterday morning :-

                                    Ogden first light

                                        Sun appearing

                                         Clear blue skies

                                         Late autumn colour

                                        Ogden in silhouette

                                      Not oft you see Ogden like this.

A strange day with the Solstice sunrise and red skies short lived to give way to wind and rain that got up from nowhere and by lunch time I was dog walking in a W>5 and horizontal drizzle.
Mid afternoon it changed just as quickly leaving a dry and pleasant afternoon and evening.
Slowly from now the daylight starts to lengthen making us look forward to evening birding again.
A check on the Raggalds Flood midday in a howling rain storm produced just 4 Common gulls and 8 Black Headeds with no sign of the Pit Lane Lapwing flock.
BS