Shibden Head

         All quiet then along drifts a Buzzard

           Keeping low in the valley bottom

    Transparent wings in the sun

                  Rising up into the sun

      Good that possibly one of the last Swifts I see
                    is escorting a Buzzard.

1500 hrs.
No migrants down in Shibden valley as yet but some signs of dispersion with 7 Willow Warblers, all adults, moving through together. A Gt Spotted Woodpecker called and showed briefly, my first this year, although its not often you see me in the woods, Im a water and sky man and get fidgety if I can,t see an expanse of open sky.
Luckily for me I was only on the fringe of the wood when a Buzzard flew through the valley below me and at distance. It leisurely skimmed through the tree tops before lifting high in the air and heading off towards Ringby, escorted by Swifts and Swallows.
Two Kestrels were present but surprisingly no passerines.
BS

Northowram, AC territory.

With 1 hour to kill this afternoon and in an attempt to drop below the Queensbury fog and strong W>6-7 it was head downhill to Northowram to have a scout around for any signs of migrant movement.
The cricket pitch area was below the cloud base but very grey with dark clouds rolling over carried on the W>5 making it unlikely for any small migrants to be showing.
A single ad male Pied Wagtail was on one of the pitches but with a dog walker present there were no other birds there.
Several Swallows were over the long hedge field which held a few corvids along with 2 Blackbirds and a Mistle Thrush which I picked up on my way back.
                                                      A walk down the long hedge produced 2 Willow Warblers, 3 Dunnocks and a Robin but all were skulking well down in the thick hedge out of the wind.
An LBB and 6 BHGs headed >W overhead.
Good to meet up with the Northowram warden Andy Cockroft who put me wise to a few local hot spots as well as us having a good moan about what a poor birding year it has been so far.
On the way back I checked out a small wooded area mentioned by Andy and came up with another 3 Willow Warblers but dipped on his Spotted Flycatcher.

Meanwhile, where are all the weird birds coming from :-

          Oxenhope Lesser Black Backed Gull

         Oxenhope Common Scoter . Top bird, very pale drake

                          Ogden, pied Cormorant

Ogden determination

                       Nice count of Lesser Black Backed

  2 of each, Common and Black Headed

                                      Butch looking LBB

  The left hand Common is already getting its
                                      autumn plumage.

   Strange place for this juv LLB to find a rat.

                                         well worth a tussle

Low cloud and heavy drizzle was just what the doctor ordered this evening for yet another check on Ogden which once again failed to produce any target birds. Best I could do was a drake Teal way over in the NW corner by the Canadas.
LBB numbers were looking good with 23 inc 7 juvs, 2 of which were squabbling over some sort of rat.
BHGs counted at 74 along with 11 Commons.  Only 2 Cormorant tonight which, as usual. left around 1830 hrs.
BS

The Ogden Scoter hunt goes on.

 This LBB stood out from the rest with a near black mantle
                                                 ( intermedius)

                                    A better count of Black Headeds

A 1900 hr check of Ogden still failed to supply me with a Common Scoter but it will,watch this space.
BH gulls gave a count of 92 with 5 Commons and 16 LBBs, one of which was an Intermedius.
No Cormorants this evening but I was a little later so they could have moved on to roost.
Otherwise 8 Canadas and post breeding Mallard numbers slowly increasing.
I thought by now with breeding out of the way that the Kingfishers would have returned to the sluice gate area but no sign as yet.
BS

Ogden p.m. visit. Day of the Cormorants.

                     3 of 6 Cormorants on the deck and in the water

              Common gull amongst the Black Headed

            All seemed to be catching well

                             juv Cormorant

                                          juv LBBs with BHGs

                              1 of 11 fly overs >NE

            A strange one, Not right for Lucidus, poss juv
                 but white face and wingbars.
                Could be Leucism.

An interesting evening visit to Ogden with 6 Cormorants present with 3 on shore, 2 in the water and one on the depth float whilst another 11 moved >NE overhead in twos and threes very high.
One had strange markings with a Barnacle type coloured head, white breast and white wing bars.
The Cormorants move into Ogden annually in August usually getting up to a count of around 15.
                                                                   Gull numbers continue to increase with 13 LBB, 70+ BHG and 9 Commons. Still no Scoter this year for this location.
BS

Oxenhope Reservoir early p.m. visit. Scoters on the move

   3 m Common Scoter, as usual a distance away.

          Kept flying a circuit then back on the water

      Took the centre bird to be a 1st summer male !

 Hard to see in the rough water

                                      In to land

A check for Scoter yesterday evening found nothing on Oxenhope and then this morning a text from CK alerted me to 3 males which arrived last light yesterday or early morning today.
A dash up there in a spare hour early afternoon found the 3 still present but very distant, as always , in the centre of the water which was very rough in the wind creating troughs and waves which the birds were lost amongst.
1 of the Scoters looked like the others on the water apart from lack of knobble on its bill but in flight was very pale looking almost Mallard like. I believe this to be a first year male.
The 3 remained throughout my visit but kept flying a circuit of the water before landing back in the same place.
Well done to Chris King for getting up there this morning and turning them up.

3m Common Scoter
c 400 LBB
c100 BHG
21 Herring
76 Lapwing
+ usual sp
Still a lack of waders even with sandy shoreline full length of the western bank and several pools exposed.
BS

Ogden early visit

Waiting for the vets report this morning so it was down to an early morning Ogden dash with a low expectancy of Scoter.
A wild W>6 was blowing as I arrived at 0645 hrs creating white horses on the water which was void of birds other than a few gulls. Even the Mallards were sheltering on the shore.
Gulls were just starting to build up with several coming in from the south, these being mainly Black Headeds.  The shoreline held 38 BHGs , 7 Commons and 5 LBBs along with a single Cormorant which also arrived from the south.
A Green Woodpecker flew over the info centre, a bird I have had several sightings of this year but strangely no Gt Spotted, Long Tailed Tits or Jay this year which are usually easy to connect with around the water.
I failed to mention yesterday that one of the Oxenhope YL gulls, seen by KM, was showing a yellow Darvic ring but too distant to take any numbers.
The tea time session today depends on Baby, Daughter and Dog !
BS

Oxenhope reservoir cut short.

Inspired by an e mail from KM this afternoon reporting a 1st year and 2 third year YL Herring gulls, different from the Leeshaw bird, at Oxenhope during the week plus 2 adults I,ve had and the Leeshaw 3rd year bird making 6 Yellow Legged Herring gulls through the area July/Aug plus another 2 Common Scoters so I thought I,d better get up there sharpish.
                                           On arrival at 1600 hrs the banking the whole length of the reservoir was packed with gulls but no Scoters or waders present.
A scoped count revealed over 800 LBBs, c 300 BHGs and 27 Herring gull.
Now was the task of checking through 1200 + gulls for goodies . Then a phone call from a distraught Lynda that one of the dogs was having fits and needed to get to the vets a.s.a.p. so it was up stumps and a dash back home leaving the gulls unchecked.
Rooney the Poodle has to stay in overnight for checks and probably have to be picked up in the morning which sounds like the Sunday mornings birding session scuppered and probably me having fits when they hit me with the bill.
Well done to KM for his time and effort sorting the birds at Oxenhope.
BS

Leeshaw Reservoir

            Very distant shots , 3rd Summer Y.L. Herring gull

                                 YL Herring and Lesser Black Backed.

A combined dog walk and reservoir check  mid evening found an ad Gt Crested Grebe again on Lower Laithe and the 3rd summer Yellow Legged Herring gull still hanging around Leeshaw reservoir but on the dam wall keeping to the far end nearly out of range.
Otherwise 7 LBBs were present around the water along with a single Cormorant and the usual Greylags and Canadas.
The fields held 2 Oystercatchers and around 200 Jackdaws whilst 4 Common gulls headed >W.

Moved Big Bertha the 600mm lens on so down to the Canon 300 with a 1.4 converter which is poor for distant . Tried a Panasonic Lumix 60x bridge which I thought might do the job but ended up blowing £100 in a week selling it on as found it useless.
BS

Quick Ogden check

A late p.m. dash to Ogden to check the water found 13 Canadas at the north end along with an ad Gt Crested Grebe, possibly the Oxenhope/ Lower Laithe bird plus the usual Mallards with slightly increasing post breeding numbers.
Several are in eclipse and flightless at the moment.
The ad and juv Herons were on the east banking but gull numbers were poor due to the lateness of the hour with several already left for the roost.
Just 2 LBBs and 27 BH gulls remained.
Several Swallows feeding but no Swifts.
BS

Strong winds and quiet skies

A strong WSW>6 was blowing over the tops today keeping the skies quiet and nothing in the way of local sightings.
No birding for me today and possibly the next few days with the birth of our 4th Granddaughter with a few complications with the daughter Rachel keeping her in hospital over the next few days and us on granddaughter baby sitting duties.
On route down Old Guy Rd today several BH gulls were present in the fields but no Wheatear back on the cricket pitch as yet.
BS

Late afternoon reservoir watch. Leeshaw/ Lower Laithe.

Limited time today so it was late afternoon when I did a combined dog walk and reservoir check.
Conditions were good with low scud clouds and heavy drizzle but even that failed to drop anything in for me.
Lower Laithe was busier than usual with 3 Cormorant, 1 Gt Crested Grebe, 4 LBB gulls and 43 BH gulls whilst 2 Pied Wagtail and a Grey were on the valve tower.

Leeshaw had a good count of 115 Greylag and 48 Canadas making it a record year for Greylag at this location .
The freshly muck spread fields held hundreds of corvids, mainly Jackdaws along with 3 Oystercatchers, 2 Curlew and around 100 BH gulls whilst the thistle heads were attracting good numbers of Goldfinch.
Just 1 Mallard on the water joined by 3 Cormorant.

Interesting to get a second Cuckoo report in two days, this time from a customer, dog walker, who rang me to say there was a very scraggy looking Cuckoo by the duck feeding area at Ogden and as he approached it, thinking it was injured, it flew up and landed in the Nuthatch tree.
                                    Could be a bird in moult or more likely a juv passing through.
All quiet otherwise today with no more reports coming in.
BS

Yorkshire Day.

Angela , from the Angela/Gary birding team, text me this morning saying she would expect a Yorkshire rose on my blog tonight for Yorkshire Day . I have,nt a photo to hand of a Yorkshire rose so as not to disappoint here,s an old Yorkshire saying thats still applicable  with Queensbury folk.
                                  " Ear all, see all, say nowt.
                                      Eat all, sup all, pay nowt.
                                 And if thee ever does owt for nowt,
                                      Allus do it for thissen.

Nathen Angela, I ope thas reet chuffed wit rhyme an I ope Bilberry pie tha wa mekking fo Gary dunt gi im skitters.

Back to birding.
A real start to August with reports of Sedge Warbler PG, Yellow Wagtail, Hen Harrier,NK, Cuckoo, Mr Hicken at Clayton, Caspian gulls MC Hudds, and a family of Grey Partridge A & G.

With Caspian gull on my mind it was a late afternoon visit to Oxenhope reservoir to sift through the gulls with high hopes of Caspian, Yellow Legged and Med gull.
On arrival I was pleased to meet up with Mr Gull Man himself, Keith Moir who was already in action scoping carefully through the c 600 gulls on the shoreline but at a fair distance.
There were around 300 + LBBs, c 200 BHGs and a good count of 28 Herring gull with gulls arriving throughout whilst others left.
Several Lapwing were on the sandy banking but despite the excellent conditions not a wader was present.
The next hour was spent carefully checking every Herring gull for yellow legs, darker mantle, small dark eye and longer bill, not an easy task through the scope at such a distance but at the end we had to agree that there was no Yellow Legged or Caspian amongst them but an enjoyable and interesting session.
2 Swifts were present over the water, at least bringing my last sighting into August although I,ll probably see one or two more yet.
Thanks to KM for his help with the search and added gull info.
BS