Winter begins, Leeshaw.

 

                                    Sunrise at Queensbury

                                Another odd YL type gull

                                    Busy water

                                    Unusual to get Gt Tit at this site

                                    Greylags

                                Blue Tits also uncommon.

                                A frosty beck

                                    Sunset at Queensbury.

A beautiful morning at Leeshaw with full sun and clear blue skies on a light NW>2 at an icy minus one degree. Plenty frozen puddles as well as the fringes of the reservoir.

     A good count of Canadas and Greylags along with a brief sighting of the Pink Footed goose as it left with the Greylags heading for the fields at Upper Marsh.

     Only other wildfowl were a single female Teal along with 6 Mallard whilst a Heron was on the far bank as well as a Cormorant. Two unusual visitors for this site were a Great and a Blue Tit.

     A good collection of gulls with around 200 small gulls, 5 LBBs and around 30 Herrings. The gull pictured on the tower had characteristics of a 3CY to adult Yellow Legged Herring with pale yellow legs, though the feet were pink, and a partial face mask though heavily streaked head. The mantle was slightly darker than the photo shows due to the sun upping the exposure and the eye looked dark in the 2 minutes I had to scope it but hard to tell at the distance, hence the 1 poor photo.

     Looking through Martin Garners very explicit ID of  YL gulls in Britain it seems the options are, 

Herring gull with lipochrome, yellowish legs,  YL Herring of the race 'omissus' due to heavy head streaking, which I,ve had a probable at this site before, or hybrid  YL x Herring.

    Looks like we could be back to the fog and drizzle again tomorrow with a light south easterly.

BS

       

   

Wrong decision Fly Flatts, should have gone to Leeshaw !!

                            Glowing sky, Emley Moor from Cold Edge Rd.

                            Early morn at the boatyard.

                                    Rough water

 A bright clear morning with early sun but extinguished with cloud by 0830 hrs. An icy cold moderate NW>3 at 1 degree but perfect visibility.

    With the bright clear conditions this morning I headed for Fly Flatts full of good intentions with 3 lenses in the bag but only the standard landscape 28-70mm used. By 0830hrs it was obvious that I,d made the wrong decision and should have stuck to Leeshaw with guaranteed birds.

     The skies and water were void of any bird life other than 3 LBB gulls and a single Buzzard. A Meadow Pipit and Stonechat were on a distant fence and the family of 5 Crows were around the compound. Other than that the area was completely bird free looking like Fly Flatts will be of little use until late February when I get the first Ringed Plovers starting to return.

    Just a few gulls on Mixenden as I drove past on the way home.

Another bright day promised for tomorrow with a lighter NW and an early morning temp of  minus one.

BS

Not for the faint hearted, but a star prize. Leeshaw.

 

                                Greylag struggling in the wind.

                                m Teal  /  m Gadwall, a site 1st.

                                A rarity in my area.

                                Record shots only at distance in pounding drizzle

                                Enough to show distinguishing features.

A real horror of a morning with a  near gale W>7 gusting gale force >8 at 38 m.p.h. This, combined with very heavy horizontal drizzle at 7 degrees meant that only the most dedicated or insane birders were out. I,m border line between the two but leaning more towards the latter.

        As I,ve often said, " the worst the weather the better the birds", and this morning was no exception when a drake Gadwall appeared from the west end of the reservoir along with a drake Teal. Unfortunately the pair stayed way out in the middle of the rough water and very difficult to see through the wall of drizzle, hence the horrific photos but a record of a very rare duck for this area. My last local Gadwall was Ogden 2016 and before that Mixenden 2015.

      I put the word out to local birder BV who went up early afternoon and luckily got the bird which was also a new bird for him at this site. Brians last local Gadwall were 3 on Leeming 15 years ago.

We believe that this is a first ever recorded Gadwall for this site. Back in the golden days of B.O.G. Gadwall were recorded mainly at Knotford Nook in the days that Smew were regular visitors to that site.

       Otherwise, just the usual Greylags and Canadas plus around 50 small gulls and 5 Herring but all sticking to distant fields out of the wind. No sign of yesterdays PF Goose today.

    Dare I say, bright and sunny tomorrow on a moderate >NW at 3 degrees, I,ll have to see that to believe it.

BS

Back to normal weather conditions wind, drizzle and fog. Leeshaw/ Lower Laithe

LOWER LAITHE

                                    Gulls on the gantry

LEESHAW RESERVOIR    Pink Footed goose

                                        Taken in a drizzle blizzard

                                    A very murky morn.

After one clear day it was back to dense fog and heavy drizzle with near gale force winds from early p.m. Leeshaw was below the fog but not a nice place to be with a moderate W>4 bringing continuous horizontal drizzle with mist clouds and as black as night. Certainly not a morning for the camera. Temp was 6 degrees making all the lenses steam up on scope, camera and bins.

               Despite the weather there was plenty to see and search through though very difficult trying to keep the bins de-fogged. A good count of over 150 Greylags and over 200 Canadas which after a lot of scoping through I managed to pick out a single Pink Footed goose.

       Plenty gulls with 32 Herring, 15 LBB and around 100 small gulls but very mobile around the fields and water.

       Conditions were a little better down in the Sladen Valley at Lower Laithe with a good count of gulls both on the gantry and on the water but again nothing special.

    Not looking good for morning with gale force westerlies and more rain, hopefully without the fog.

        Before I started putting the blog on I had a check on the east coast lifeboat station live web cams for Whitby, Redcar, Filey and Withernsea to check for waders as the tide was coming in.

     Redcar was amazing with a count of over 140 Oystercatchers, along with several Redshank, Ringed Plover and over 40 Turnstone in one small area. Glad someone is getting birds.

BS

                  

 

A strange morning at Fly Flatts

 A very windy wet start to the morning but by 0830 hrs the drizzle had gone and the wind dropped from W>5 to W>3 with part cloudy skies at 5 degrees.

      Very little in the way of birds but to be fair most of my time was spent on the phone and texting to Yorkshire Water and the sailing club as on arrival the top gate lock had been badly damaged and crow barred and the south bank new gates had been forced open with severe damage to the gates and lock.

     No damage to the boat yard but it looked like a vehicle had come up from the Castle Carr area last night, probably on the rob, and forced the gates at the bottom but never managed to get through the top gate so took the fence down at both sides of the gate and drove through the field.

     Bird-wise, I expected trans Pennine geese over, but other than a few Herring and Common gull >NE, along with c 40 Fieldfare by the turbines, the sky remained quiet.

    A count of 27 Mallard on the water with 3 Reed Buntings and 2 Meadow Pipits was the best I could do.

     Several gulls on Mixenden on the way past but no Whoopers.

Back to rain and gale force winds tomorrow and Thursday but the good news is the temperature has to drop to 4 degrees at the weekend so that should keep the fog away.

BS

Back to the quietness of Fly Flatts.

 

                                    1 of 5   Reed Bunting.

                                    Fog over 't moor.

                                Bit of brightness to the north of the Nab

                                    Turbines barely visible.

The first 15 minutes at Fly Fly were clear and bright but by 0815hrs the usual fog banks were rolling through from the west with some very heavy rain showers then light drizzle improving slightly as the watch went on. A moderate W>4 at 5 degrees.

        A very poor morning by Leeshaw standards with just 5 Reed Bunting, 1 Kestrel and a Wren throughout the watch but this is the price you pay for watching a patch on a regular basis. You,ve just to take it on the chin and remind yourself of the birds you,ve had up there and patiently wait for something turning up, which it always does, given time.

     The beauty of Fly Flatts is that when something does turn up its usually something special. At least it was nice to get back up there after the endless foggy mornings of late.

     Hopefully the moderate north, then north east wind, forecast for tomorrow, will move the fog. The rain that,s forecast I can handle. Because of the weather I,ve been out in lately I,ve had to make a specialized rain cover for the camera and lens out of a cut up dog coat as the genuine cover could not handle the amount of rain when the camera is in use. Unfortunately they don,t make waterproof gear up to Fly Flatts standards.

    I dread to think what Arthur Morris would say if I turned up to one of his bird photography tutorial trips with a lens covered in a dog coat and cable ties!

BS

Leeshaw and another special visitor

 

                                Rare visitor, distant Barn Owl

                                Did,nt seem to mind the rain.

                                Herring gulls on the tower

Same weather as yesterday, and the last few weeks, with fog on the top and Leeshaw dark and drizzly on a SW>4 at 6 degrees with heavy rain by 0930 hrs.

     A rare visit from a Barn owl this morning quartering the far banking then out onto the moor. It had me going to start with as it was flying with 4 Black Headed gulls and stood out as a clean bright bird which had me thinking Iceland gull until I got the bins on it. This is only about the third sighting I,ve had at this site although the local farmer has reported one on a couple of occasions last year.

      Otherwise it was just down to gulls with a good count of 53 Herring, around 100 Black Headed and just 6 Lesser Black Backed with nothing unusual among them today.

    A light westerly tomorrow with a few showers so I may even get to Fly Flatts before the spring, but thats all fog dependent.

BS