At least the fog has gone

Evening Dog Walk

                                                     Top entrance to Foxhill Park

                           Mountain, towards Foxhill School

                                       Looking east over the valley

                                          In the park

                                                   Foxhill School

                  The Pineberry, ex pub

                                   Top pitch, Foxhill

                                      Fleet Lane top

                                    Fleet Lane boarding kennels

A much better day with the fog clearing overnight leaving a decent morning with some blue sky but rapidly deteriorating by midday with a strong W>5 and heavy drizzle showers.
Checked at lunch time to see if the 2 Tawny Owls had returned to their winter roost yet but no sign of them.
Several Fieldfare were about in the fields next to the Dailies along with 2 Meadow Pipits.
A customer who lives at Oxenhope told me today that his sun flower seed feeders are overwhelmed with Greenfinch which is unusual for his garden.
BS

Day of Darkness, who switched the lights out.

The least said about today the better with pea souper fog from start to finish. Visibility was down to a few yards most of the day, especially after darkness fell.
Another trip to Bingley today to the Yorkshire Clinic for Lyndas hand re dressing then 2 more trips next week, one for the stitches out Monday then back to see the consultant at 1615 hrs Christmas eve of all times.
The fog was still thick right down into Bingley at midday but clearing in the bottoms slightly on our way back mid afternoon.
Tonight the village is shrouded in the stuff with heavy drizzle coming down.
Not a bird of any description seen or heard today and the way it looks tonight its set to continue in the dead calm conditions.
The only good thing about evenings like this is its handy for snooking round putting Christmas cards through neighbours doors like we all seem to do for some reason, even when you,ve been talking to them earlier.
Why do we try open the gate quietly hoping they don,t look out of the curtains and then carefully and as silently as possible ease the letter box up to drop the card in. If you let the letter box slip and it clatters shut its head for the gate sharpish.
Does everyone do this or is it just Queensbury folk that wait for the cover of darkness and then set off out on the Christmas card delivery run. There,s nowt as queer as fowk.
BS

Missing birds off the 2015 list.

Several birds have avoided me in 2015 around my area which I usually find through casual observations without going searching for certain species.
Waders have been the worst this year with high reservoir levels in the spring and no autumn birds dropping in despite excellent shoreline conditions at most waters.
A few Warblers missing as expected with me not being a woodland birder though most are usually turned up walking around the fringes of the plantation at Ogden. Another year with no Twite despite frantic feeding at Leeshaw, Fly Flatts and Soil Hill although out of my area Twite are still being reported so I,ve not given up hope for 2016 and will continue with the Nyger seed .
A disappointment with no Yellow Legged Herring gull which is unusual and not a Tern of any description despite a lot of effort put into gull movement.
Two of the common most birds not connected with are Kingfisher which was a breeder at Ogden for several years but no longer found there. Just the one sighting this year by DJS with a single bird down in the overflow but despite regular checks by me and others it never returned there.
The other commoner being Treecreeper which, after a years wanderings around Ogden, not a single bird sighted despite JL producing several photos on his blog of this species.
This could be down to the fact that I tend to watch the water and sky more than the trees although they are usually very vocal giving themselves away.

The following list is the commoner birds which I should have had during 2015 but missed out on :-

Red Kite
Osprey
Hobby
Harriers
Shoveler
YL Herring Gull
Common and Arctic Tern
Kingfisher
Waxwing
Grasshopper Warbler
Treecreeper
Brambling
Twite
Redpoll
Crossbill

All waders except, Snipe, Curlew, Whimbrel, Dunlin,Oystercatcher, Common Sandpiper
                               Golden Plover, Lapwing, Redshank.
And thats without going into the unexpected or rarer species.
Oh well, soon be starting again for 2016.
BS.

Double Header, a.m / p.m.

Fly Flatts, first light.

    Eluded me all year but got em in the end.  Male

                                Picking gravel on the track

     Very distant pics at 600mm in poor light

                                         Singing his head off

                      The female didnt seem impressed

 

                                  Icy roads making a hazardous drive

                                           Down the track first light

                                          To the sea

                                           Frozen pond

                 Across to the Nab

                          Shooting the rapids

                                               Fly Flatts Falls

                    The abandoned feeding station, still put Nyjer down

              0930hrs and my old friend fog coming to see me

An icy hazardous drive to Fly Flatts first light but beautiful to get up there again after 8 Sundays of waiting due to fog. A cold E>4 came across the water but did,nt cause a problem but by 0930 hrs fog was rolling over the moor and by the time I,d drove on and put seed at the second site and checked for SEO it was shutdown with dense fog.
The water itself held 32 Mallard , 1 female Tufted and a female Goldeneye across under the far banking but the latter soon flew towards Cold Edge meaning it was probably DJSs bird from yesterday.
Walking back up the track a small passerine was flitting about from the track to the thistles followed by a second bird.
Imaging my delight when I raised the bins and got a pair of Stonechat, especially after my last nights blog.
They were very flittery and kept their distance but I managed a few record shots.
On the way back I checked Ingham Lane Alders which were heaving with birds but no Redpolls, just Gt and Blue Tit, Chaffinch and Greenfinch as well as House Sparrows and Dunnocks.
Raggalds flood was now fogged off.


Mixenden late afternoon.

                                             Mixenden just below the cloud base

                        Small gulls and Jackdaws

                                             Dog walker approaches

                                                     Low over the water

                                                             Up

                                                             and away

 A deteriorating day with thick fog and heavy drizzle up here in the gods by late afternoon.
A search of Soil Hill had to be aborted so it was down to Mixenden which was just below the cloud base but dull and miserable with light drizzle.
Around 60 small gulls were on the east banking, 80% being Black Headed along with a few Jackdaws. I started to make my way on to check them out but a dog walker bet me to it making them rise up high and away >E.
Nothing else on the water or in the sky.
Another check of Ingham Lane Alders on the way back found it deserted in the manky conditions whilst Raggalds Flood was once again fogged off but the flock of Lapwing were flying low over the football pitch with a count of around 80.
BS

Eck, where did this gap come from. Comment box 50yds down!

The ups and downs of the Stonechat, Saxicola torquata.

Inspired by DJSs report on Stonechat at Cold Edge Dams, see Calderbirds, and my lack of any sightings of the species in 2015 so far I looked back through my last few years records to see what the score was.
This year has been very poor with very few sightings throughout the area whereas 2014 produced several breeding pair and numerous sightings in my area. On May 5th 2014  I clocked 8 breeding pair holding territory in the vicinity of Fly Flatts, most of these breeding successfully. I also had sightings at Cold Edge Dams, Ned Hill track and Leeshaw reservoir.
Numbers were well down in 2013 with just a male bird seen at Fly Flatts and a female at Paul Clough.
Breeding was proved in 2012 at Ogden with a pair producing 3 young, nesting in bracken, but again no higher upland sightings, whilst 2011 found 1 male down the Dailie fields, not a regular area for Stonechat.
Going back to the sixties when I started birding the Stonechat was a rare bird in the area and I was a few years into birding before I actually started getting sightings. Strangely enough, my first ever Stonechat was on South Stack in Anglesey and after that I started getting them slowly increasing around my patch. By the 1980s they were regular breeders around Cold Edge Dams with as many as 12 breeding pairs to be found during one summer but this only lasted a couple of years before numbers drastically fell again. Since then numbers have been up and down year by year.
Oddly Stonechats have left Soil Hill where they could be found on every visit going back not so many years, this is possibly due to disturbance from the ground work going on up there although there are still plenty Teazle's growing which seemed to be the plant that attracted them most.
The reports above are only my own account of the Stonechat and I know other local birders have their own reports of birds seen around the area.
Many years ago I was lucky enough to watch a West Siberian Stonechat (,Maurus,) whilst on autumn vis mig watch and each year after days of easterlies sightings are reported though mainly down the east coast. There is also an East Siberian as well as another 4 sub species but the maurus is the one we are most likely to see although I,d be happy this year with just a plain common European.

I,ve done the above article to keep you amused or bored for 5 minutes due to birding being abandoned today  with a covering of snow this morning which turned to heavy rain throughout the day non stop with fog thrown in by mid afternoon.

Breeding Stonechat from previous years.

                                                  Male

                                                       Female

                                                              Juv

BS

Wintery showers for Queensbury

          Low mist rolling through the Aire Valley

                                Bright skies over Foxhill

                                        First light this morning

             Nearest I,ve got to a Treecreeper this year, Gt Tit.

A light covering of snow this morning after a night of lashing sleet and snow. Once daylight came the skies cleared leaving a decent day with a few heavy showers.
The tit flock was still in the baptist graveyard at midday whilst a cat up a tree there was getting some stick from 2 Carrion Crows.
Several of the Great Tits were tree climbing, balancing themselves with their tails.
All quiet otherwise in the skies today, hopefully things will improve over the weekend.
Another mammoth task today putting Lyndas hair in a ponytail. This is an easy girlie job but not for the faint hearted male with different lengths of hair refusing to stay in place and the elastic hair band having a mind of its own.
There,s even a problem when you think you,ve cracked it as it seems it can be too high, too low, too slack or too tight. I was glad to get to the garage to do jobs on nice simple cars .
Enjoy your weekend.
BS

Queensbury Today

Heavy rain to start with this morning then clearing leaving a brighter but cold day and still quite windy.
Nothing much about again today other than small gull numbers increasing throughout the village and a decent sized tit flock in the Baptist chapel graveyard with around 12 Blue Tits and 8 Great Tits, not a usual spot for these.
At lunch time a Buzzard sp was heading >N well in the distance over Baildon Moor but at that distance it was impossible to say what other than Buzzard sp, probably Common.
Will have to go sit down now exhausted after putting a duvet cover on the bed with Lynda being temporary out of full action. I don,t know how you ladies go on with jobs like that, there was more of me inside the cover than the duvet and then I got told the corners were,nt in right, hurry up back Lynda.
BS

Not a good day

Took Lynda to the Yorkshire Clinic at Bingley today for a hand operation, as if she has,nt been through enough. Arrived there at 1230 hrs and got home at 2000hrs.
Whilst she was down having the op I was stuck in a hospital room gazing out of the window hoping for passing Pinkies.
Several LBB gulls were over the Dowley Gap area with plenty small gulls passing through.
Down in the grounds a flock of  around 18 Goldfinch were feeding in the Alders but very mobile and with no bins or camera it was impossible to see if anything else was in with them other than Great and Blue Tits.
Once the darkness started to fall Woodpigeons piled in from all directions roosting in the large Cedar trees whilst around 200 Jackdaws headed towards the roost at Hewenden.
Looks like I,m on domestic duties for a bit now whilst Lynda is one handed.
BS