Some to remember from 2015.

                                 Soil Hill Snow Bunting

                                  Mixenden Whooper Swans

                                     Fly Flatts Shelduck

                                        Soil Hill Ring Ouzels

                                   Fly Flatts Common Sandpiper

               Lapwing chick, Soil Hill

                                         Pochard, Ogden

                                 Long Eared Owl

                                          Soil Hill Sedge Warblers

 

                                     Fly Flatts Buzzard

                                     Fly Flatts Short Eared Owl

                Mixended Gt Northern Diver

                                  Mixenden Gadwall

                        Eclipse of the sun

                      More Soil Hill Ring Ouzels, 5 present

                                      Ogden Scoter

                                        Ogden Sparrowhawk

                       Taylor Lane Cuckoo

                                        EGP Little Egret

It always makes me feel better during dull times like this looking back at a few of the good birds produced over the last 12 months.
BS

A typical Monday

Just to rub the weekends weather in today was wall to wall sunshine and clear blue skies with a light  S > 4 which is typical for a Monday.
Raggalds flood was again void of birds whilst around 80 Lapwings were on the Pit Lane football pitch.
A hospital appointment with Lynda this afternoon meant a trip to the Yorkshire clinic at Bingley and its amazing how the bird life changes a few miles from here. Cullingworth was alive with gulls overhead and around 300 in the usual fields and from there to Bingley the skies were active with gulls, corvids, Fieldfare and Redwing as well as counting 3 separate Sparrowhawks over St Ives and 4 Kestrels on route.
The grounds of the clinic had Gold and Greenfinch , Blackbirds and Song Thrushes. Its a different world away from here, I saw more birds today in a 20 minute drive than I,ve seen in the last month in my area.
I also just missed a skein of Pinkies at 1330 hrs reported over Whetstone Gate, SR,( B.O.G.) I was just parking up in the hospital grounds at that time.
BS

Bunting Hunting, Soil Hill

                    Plenty Goldfinch on the hill

                                 Zoomed in on Oxenhope res.

                                             Withins Gap

                DJS attempting the mounds

With a dry late afternoon and the wind down to W>5 it was up to Soil Hill with the assumption that
birds would be out desperate to feed after the two days of bad conditions, wrong,.
Things were generally quiet although Goldfinch were busy feeding on the teazle's with 2 flocks of 9 and 7 but very mobile.  A snipe flushed from the west summit whilst 2 Meadow Pipits flitted around the tops.
A search of the north face tree line produced 3 Siskin which were distant and left towards Ogden whilst a Moorhen was on the NK pond.
A full zig zag search of the east summit failed drastically.
Good to bump into DJS on the hill as I was leaving so he took over the search from me.
On the way to the hill the Raggalds Flood was bird less but 6 Golden Plover flew from fields at the bottom of Perseverance Rd dropping down near Taylor Lane around the Cuckoo area.
Another visit in search of the Bradshaw Redpolls failed to produce.
BS

Another Sunday morning washout. Ogden

                               From empty to this in 3 weeks

                                        Catching a brief bright spell

                                                    Plenty water, no birds

Sunday morning birding seems to be a thing of the past lately with yet another weekend scuppered with high winds and heavy showers.
Conditions as they were first thing I decided Ogden was far enough to go knowing that nothing would have been moving over the last few days and Ogden proved my theory right with empty waters and even passerines being pushed back deep in the wood for shelter.
The wind blew and the rain lashed down with some brief spells where even the sun tried to break through but amazingly a full circuit of the water produced just, 3 BH gulls, 1 Goldcrest and a Cormorant, plus the usual Mallards and that was it, not even a resident Robin.
Two visits to JLs Redpoll trees in Bradshaw again failed to produce but conditions were horrendous both visits.
BS

Doing the rounds, horrendous.

Overnight gales continued throughout the day today with a mixture of heavy rain and drizzle. WSW >8-9 blew gale to severe gale force causing some structural damage around Queensbury , not to mention the hazards of air born wheelie bins.
A detour on the way back from Halifax this afternoon took us through Bradshaw to try catch up to JLs Redpolls but not surprisingly no birds were present in the conditions. A good area for Alders with plenty around so the birds, if locals, would have moved to a more sheltered area. Years ago I got 28 Siskin in this area of Alders so well worth keeping an eye on.
By 1500 hrs I was battling the elements at Ogden where chaos was ongoing with cars everywhere, for some reason the car park gates were all locked and I was told they had,nt been opened all day.
The water was like the North sea with crashing waves and white horses along with horizontal drizzle.
Even the Mallards were sheltering in the bird table area under the shed.
Around 75 hardy small gulls were out in the middle of the water.
With darkness now fast approaching it was back through Bradshaw for a second check of the redpoll site with the same results then on to the Raggalds Flood which held 4 Common gull and 2 Lapwing.
Another c80 Lapwing and c100 small gulls were on the football pitch.
Hopefully the wind will blow itself out before morning but I,m not holding my breath.
BS

A wild and wet Queensbury

A bright morning which soon deteriorated into drizzly showers and the wind increasing to gale force after dark.
With talk of Waxwings on the move, see BTO blog, heres a reminder of what you,re looking for. The first port of call for them is usually supermarket car parks for the Rowan tree berries then they can appear anywhere where good supplies of berries are available.

Foxhill Waxwings 2013

  Don,t be fooled into thinking they,re Starlings

 Pics taken before the days of a decent camera

                                        These flew over the garden

Have a good weekend, don,t get blown away.
BS

More Fog for Queensbury

Back to thick fog this morning not clearing until I was going back to work at 1300 hrs so no dinnertime dash for me . The afternoon was dark and drizzly with strong winds and heavy rain as darkness fell.
Nothing to report from the tops today but well done to AC for finding the first 3 Waxwings at Rastrick today. Lets hope its the start of a good winter for them after last years failure, whereas the first 4 months of 2013 was alive with them turning up in gardens for Cotoneaster berries with there being a shortage of Rowan. April 2013 even produced 12 in our front garden feeding on Hawthorn berries and apples stuck on canes.

Congratulations to Phil Cunningham, ex B.O.G. birder now at Flamborough, who retires as a firefighter at midnight tonight. There,ll be no rarities getting passed Flamboro unreported now with PC on watch. I,m sure I speak for all birders in West Yorkshire in wishing you and Sue many happy times in your retirement.
BS

Pit Lane Lapwing flock

                                       Pitch full of Starlings

                                 Lapwing flock building

            Restless in the heavy drizzle and strong wind

             Iffy photos in the conditions and at distance

A check on Raggalds flood in my dinner hour produced nothing so down Pit Lane to check the football pitches.
The Queensbury winter Lapwing flock seem to have forsaken Shelf Moor again this year and have opt for this area instead.
Around 250 Starlings and 117 Lapwings were present along with a few small gulls. The Lapwings kept having a fly around but mostly squat down head to the wind in the blustery, wet conditions whilst the Starlings did,nt seem to bother and just kept on frantically probing the ground.
Again no Goldies present.
BS

More rain and fog throw in.

A foggy wet start to the day improving slightly to drizzle and a few dry spells p.m.
A check on Raggalds flood at dinner time was put off due to pockets of fog around over the mountain so a quick Dailies dash had to suffice.
A few LBB gulls were heading >N up the Aire valley along with 1 very high Heron >NW but otherwise the skies were quiet.
Down in the station Fieldfares and Redwings were on the Hawthorns but very distant views with no time to scale down there and back. Blackbirds were also plentiful though  the bushes are nearly stripped of berries now.
Getting regular reports of Woodcock in the station near the tunnel to Holmfield entrance.
BS