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

Soil Hill, late p.m. The Bunt hunt continues

  The only place more desolate than Soil Hill.

                         Late afternoon over Withens

                      Teasels, Bit artistic this is !

 At last, one of the 3 wise men appear from the South .
Daniel Branch on the case. Finding another 2 wise men
           could be a problem.

A blustery but bright Soil Hill late p.m. with a strong W>6 with excellent visibility until the sun started to go down.
Started by checking the new but well established Alders down the north slope as well as the NK pond.  The trees were deserted whilst the pond held 2 Moorhen and 1pr Mallard with a few small gulls on the shay.
A full check of the west summit and all the usual Snipe/ Jack Snipe areas proved fruitless other that a single Skylark which flew across to the east side of the hill.
Finally a full zig zag search of the east summit, scrapes and mounds produced 2 Stock Doves and probably the same Skylark.
On the way out I bumped into Daniel Branch home for Christmas so the text messages will soon be buzzing, no pressure there Daniel, great to have you back on board.
Raggalds Flood again, strangely, had nothing whilst around 100 Lapwing were at Pit Lane.
A Woodcock was reported this morning from Soil Hill by DP.
BS

Fly Flatts/Ogden

    Plenty Goldcrests in the shadows

        Coming in to land 31 Canadas,

                 A good count for Ogden

                                       Usual Black Headeds

                Dipper down by the sluice gate

                                     Several active Wrens

Fly Flatts first light,just, was shrouded with heavy drizzle blown across the moor on a strong W>5 and with very little sign of life other than a female tufted on the water , it was down to Ogden where the morning brightened up well with clear skies and sunshine.
Nothing but the usual sp. on the water till a record number of 31 Canada geese came in from the direction of Soil Hill staying on the reservoir.
About a dozen Goldcrests were active in the dark part of the west track along with several Wrens but another dip on Treecreeper and Redpoll despite checking all the Alders.
A Dipper was down in the sluice but typically with better light and tripod at the ready the Kingfisher never appeared after a full half hour of watching.
BS

Ogden, Dark, Wet, Dismal but a bright light in the sluice.

                                 A grey silhouetted Ogden

       Looks brighter than it was thanks to modern cameras

                                   Down to the sluice gate

 The monster lens nor the big lens would,nt perform
      in the 3 parts dark so back to the faithful
 bridge camera to pull enough light in for a record shot.

A real dark grim day with no sign of daylight till after 9000 hrs this morning then dull and drizzly throughout the day.
Arrived at Ogden at 1500 hrs with a real low expectancy of achieving anything with darkness closing in fast. First off was a check of the sluice for DJSs Kingfisher with nothing to be seen whilst a scan of the water produced around 80 small gulls and the usual Mallards.
With rain coming on and skies darkening by the minute I decided on a 15 minute watch of the sluice gate area then call it a do.
After 10 minutes and the will to live rapidly fading, there it was, a flash of blue landing on the bottom wall but quickly disappearing under the pump house.
Adrenaline pumping again the 15 minutes got extended and after another 10 minutes there it was again, this time settling on the steel fence but very hard to see in the now near none existent light.
Tried 2 lenses but the shutters were just stopping open trying to suck enough light in so it was down to the bridge camera which is amazing at low light.
A couple of record shots before it disappeared to roost under the pump house.
This bird looks well established in this location, catching well and preening and possible roosting under the pump house unless it can fly out of the other side and head down stream.
BS

Bird I.D. Hints for Christmas.

If your nearest and dearest are still wanting ideas for you for Christmas here,s a selection of some of my favourite I.D. books which to me are the best on the present market. Out of all the bird books I possess these are the ones most used.
With the internet at your fingertips now giving access to a million and one bird I.D. sites the day of the bird book is falling behind but to me you can,t beat flipping through the pages of a good field guide.
Whether you,re a beginner and struggling with less common birds or an advanced birder sorting out the rarer and sub species birds everyone needs to refer to the book at some point.
Probably most of the advanced birders will already have these books but you could always get a second one so that you have a nice clean copy at home and a scruffy one thrown in your birding bag for use out on the field..

    This book will scramble your brain sorting out the gulls.

          Birders bible, a must for every birder

  Two excellent Wader books. One of the hardest species
                                                to I.D.

       Splitting up the similar species. A useful guide

        Very deep in, splitting down to the last feather

  An annual publication containing diary, listings and
every bird reserve, organizations, addresses etc that
you,ll ever need to know about birds.

 A handy pocket notebook with sections for notes, listings, planner etc.

Just a thought and you,ve more chance of getting one of these than a pair of Swarovski Optics.
BS

Raggalds Flood/ Pit Lane/ Roper Lane, dinnertime dash

            Record count of 43 Canada Geese
        on the Raggalds Flood

A dash around at dinner time started at the Raggalds Flood which held a record number of Canada geese with 43 present but no sign of the stray Pinkie which was with them earlier in the week.
Nothing on the water and just around 50 Starling in the nearby field.
A search around Pit Lane fields and football pitch failed to find the Lapwing flock with just a handful of small gulls.
Roper Lane had a flock of around 30 Chaffinch very mobile in the new trees above the Redstart site along with 4 Canadas and 12 Common gulls in the pylon field.
4 Meadow Pipits were on the Old Guy Rd cricket pitch.
Quieter at work from mid afternoon so time for a bit of sky watching in amongst with perfect Pinkie skies showing blue with fast moving dark clouds below. Nothing seen but a text from DJS at 1615 hrs confirmed them moving across country with a sighting around the Ogden area.
BS