Ogden

                                             2 Oystercatchers on the shoreline

                                 Several LBB and BHGs present

   2nd year LBB on the left still with pink legs

                  LBB on the right late 2nd year or 3rd year with yellow legs

                                 LBB behind also with pink legs.

                                Bit of good Warburtons this.

1600 hrs Ogden, too warm, too sunny but limited time so just a once around the water.
                                                   Around 30 LBB gulls of various ages along with 25 BHGs all on the east bank and some on the water. The Mixenden 25 Canadas were present  as well as a few Mallard all in eclipse now whilst 1 female had 7 young ducklings with her.
Two Oystercatchers on the west shoreline were the only waders present whilst passerines were non existent in the trees around the perimeter track.
                                                       Unless Common Scoter turn up on the water Ogden can be put on the back burner until the autumn when the wildfowl start moving around.
A customer report today of a Golden Pheasant being sighted regular around the top of the Denholme Clough area. Obviously an escapee but an interesting report all the same.
Lets see what tomorrows promised thunderstorms bring through our area.
BS

Dispersion underway, Leeshaw Reservoir

                                 Common gulls starting to return

                          Landed briefly in field

  Yellow Legged Herring gull, 4th summer adult plumage

                  Greylags looking to see if it was drowning

  Oystercatcher and chick taken on far back
out of range and in rain.  600mm

         Same shot with 2x converter 1200mm in very
poor light plus converter drops it down another
2 stops of light.

   1200mm Oystercatcher with chick in foreground
          Lapwing behind with its chick to left of pic.

With Fly Flatts well and truly fogged off by 1500 hrs it was over to Leeshaw where visibility was fair with heavy drizzle and torrential rain showers on a W>4. Ideal moving conditions with plenty to keep me occupied for an hour.
                                         Two Common gulls were first in briefly landing in the Little Owl field before moving off >W followed by a constant flow of Black Headed gulls in the same direction, probably around 50 ish and all checked for Terns and Med gulls.
Several LBBs headed up into the NW corner out of sight whilst star of the gull show was the 4th summer Yellow Legged Herring Gull, now in adult plumage . This bird has visited Leeshaw annually since 2014 where it appeared in first summer plumage.
                                       Another sign of dispersion and an odd sighting for this site was a single Willow Warbler which showed briefly before dropping down into the brambles along the track side not to be re located. Way over on the far and distant bank was an Oystercatcher with a young chick along with a Lapwing, also with a young chick. The 2 chicks kept running together on the shore until seperated by the 2 mothers.
                                            A good chance to test the 2x Converter at distance and taking the terrible light conditions , heavy drizzle and the small size of the subjects into consideration I think it performed very well, especially as I was on manual focus.
Need some more of this weather now to keep things going.
BS

Fly Flatts, return of the Wheatears

                                  Fly Flats Nyjer feeding station.

                                        1st juv Wheatear back

                        Could,nt get it to move from the sun

                               4 days earlier than last years first returner.

   Only its Mother could love it. Juv Common Sandpiper.

       Bit of preening yet.

1530 hrs at Fly Flatts with bright sunshine, just what I didnt want, 40 % cloud cover and a strong to near gale W>6-7 easing to W>5-6. Good visibility.
                                                             Most of the Common Sandpipers have now moved over to the NE banking where there is a portion of peat shoreline showing but the ones with juvs are sticking it out around the South and SE areas.  Two Dunlins were mobile over the moor with no Curlews or Redshank present. The moor sounds deathly silent now without their calls.
                                                           Approaching the feeding station with another bag of Nyjer seed produced a nice surprise with a juv Wheatear in the area, back 4 days earlier than my last years record at this site. The bird was very flighty and kept between me and the sun, hence the over exposed images, but nice to know they,re are on their way. Its possible this early in July to get some returning still in their distinctive male/female plumage rather than their autumn plumage where it is harder to distinguish sexes.
A Merlin skimmed over the Nab tempted out by the number of Swifts moving through >N whilst LBB gulls headed >W into the wind.
A pleasing,bracing hour up there and the bonus of a touch of dispersion starting.
                                                            Took my new toy out today on its maiden voyage, a Canon 2x
converter which takes Big Bertha up from 600mm to 1200mm but didnt get much chance to try it out yet in the strong wind. I occasionally use a Canon 1.4 converter which takes me out from 600mm to 840mm  so I,ve high hopes with the 2x so bring on the Scoters.
BS.

Oxenhope Mayhem

  A newcomer for Leeshaw, House Sparrow

            Young Greylag nearly in adult plumage

                                                      LBB

                                                          BHG

                                                                            LBB

Leeshaw Reservoir.  1530-1630 hrs. Bright sunshine, 10 % cloud cover, W>3.
                                                                      With the roads closed around Leeshaw until 1500 hrs it was against my better judgement to try to get there at 1515 hrs, BAD IDEA !
                                                                     There was some sort of Nuggets festival going on with hundreds of party goers in fancy dress doing a giant pub crawl between the Dog and Gun, Lamb Inn and the one by Leeshaw road which I forget its name. Cars were everywhere and traffic grid locked but eventually I got there with high blood pressure and neck pumping after a lot of abuse to other drivers. Needless to say, my journey home was over the tops past Fly Flatts where there was only car loads of druggies to contend with.
                                                      Calming down I continued birding and right on schedule at 1600 hours the gulls began to arrive though less numbers than yesterday and several moving straight through >W without even stopping on the water. All the gulls were again LBBs and BHGs and the ones that stayed again went out of sight up in the NW corner.
                                                            At 1620 hrs the 4th summer Yellow Legged Herring gull came in nearly sneaking past me as I watched a distant Snipe but got the bins on it just in time before it landed out of sight not to re appear again. A single House Sparrow was an unusual species and probably a first for this site for me.
Not the best of birding weekend but it can only get better. Watch this space.
BS

Fly Flatts / Cold Edge Dams

               The Nab above blue water

 This one legged Common Sandpiper returns each year
   Providing its the same bird.

                                       Water full to overflowing now

                                                  Pheasant family

                                                                   Cold Edge Dams

0630-0945 hrs  Strong WNW>5-6.  30% cloud cover increasing to 60%.

Fly Flatts
               The water is full to overflowing now with all shoreline gone and the Common Sandpipers have had to move to higher ground around the track. Luckily breeding is at an end as far as I can see and the juv birds are all mobile though not yet flying.
Dunlin are still visiting their nest sites on the moor but I should think the young are also mobile by now. The water was very rough with all the Canadas and Greylags up on the east banking sheltering from the wind in the long grass.
                                               The only sky movement was a steady flow of Lesser Black Backed gulls heading >SW down the Calder valley and Black Headed gulls moving >NW along with good numbers of Swifts in the same direction into the wind. Every BHG was checked for Terns sneaking through but nothing as yet.

On then to Cold Edge Dams which has been a good venue for me in the past for moving Terns but , as with Fly Flatts, the skies were quiet with just a few LBBs through, again >SW.
                                                           Two Little Grebe were on the mill dam whilst the ajoining goose field has long grass so remained empty. All the Canadas were up on Leadbeater Dam under the west banking out of the wind whilst the only other birds of note were a single Oystercatcher and a pair of Tufted, the drake now going into eclipse.
BS

                                                       

Gull watch at Leeshaw.

         2 Herons present spooking the gulls

                                   Plenty LBB gulls pouring in

                                        Gulls not happy with the Heron

           Greylag with neck ring a bit closer in.

   The ring actually reads SDB and not 800 as I thought yesterday.

                                  Lapwing juv growing well

1530 hrs Leeshaw, bright with a W>5 and 60 % cloud cover.
                                                          1 hours gull watch found gulls starting to pile in at 1600 hrs mainly from the NE and settling on the water briefly before moving to the shore where unfortunately they were pushed up into the NW corner out of sight by mobbing Lapwings and Oystercatchers.
Checking the gulls as they came through failed to produce any Herring sp. all being LBBs and BHGs.
                                                           Two Herons kept spooking the gulls making them very fidgety and eventually most of them left to the west.
As I was leaving yesterday a gull came over KM and myself which Keith seemed interested in and he has just e mailed me to say it was a 4th summer Yellow Legged Herring gull, probably the bird that returns here each July. I wish I,d had stayed now as the bird flew onto the dam wall close enough for photos but my birding time had expired.
                                                               Keith also got an Arctic Tern through Leeshaw late a.m. today, good job I,m not the jealous type !!!!!
BS