Mixenden Reservoir p.m.

                                       Male Goldeneye

        Goldeneye pair. Always at the far side of the water.

                                           1 of 2 Moorhen

 Adult Cormorant in full courtship plumage showing
                    white head and white spot.

 Possible race sinensis but impossible to split from some carbo
      without close up of amount of bare skin and pattern around gape.

                                               Diving.

           Long staying female Goosander.

With strong westerly winds and heavy rain showers I walked the dogs over Foxhill and then set off on my own to Mixenden reservoir to find it well sheltered in the lee of Hunter Hill but dark clouds and some very heavy rain showers.
                                                        As with most visits to Mixy there was plenty to keep me occupied
though nothing out of the ordinary. The pair of Goldeneye were probably the long staying pair going by the way they acted being very wary and always keeping the width or length of the reservoir away.
This pair probably come from an area with very little disturbance and are not used to the public whereas some Goldeneye are very confining swimming right up in front of you. Mallards demonstrate this well with some taking bread from peoples hand whilst the really wild Mallards like the ones at Fly Flatts keep a good distance away.
                                                     The female Goosander is still present after several weeks now as well as the 2 Moorhen. Otherwise , the only other wildfowl was 12 Mallard.
                                                   A single Cormorant was diving before drying off on the depth gauge and looked well in its full courtship plumage showing a white head and white pre breeding spot on its flank. The white head does usually point to the variant sinensis though some carbo can also show the white head pre breeding and without a real close up shot of the birds face , which was impossible at this distance, it cannot be proved as the only definite way to split the two is by seeing the amount of bare skin and the pattern around the birds gape.
                                                    Around 40 small gulls on the water and just 2 Herring gulls which soon left >SW during one of the heavy rain showers.
The west bank waterside trees held 3 Goldcrest and 4 Blue Tit.
BS

Ogden in the gloom

            Kingfisher down in the dark sluice gate

                                        5 Herring gulls present

                                3rd winter loosing head streaking.

                                       Adult winter, lost head streaking

A real misery morning with a dose of everything thrown in, fog on the tops , moderate SW>5,
heavy drizzle with sleet and rain. Apart from that the weather was good!!
                                                   Ogden was pleasing for once with the 4 way traffic lights gone, very few people there and some nice Herring gulls to warm a dull morning. On the down side the Christmas tree quad bike was up and down the west bank so I gave that a miss sticking to the promenade area.
                          The highlight was Herring gulls with 5 on the water and some passing overhead , all very noisy. One Lesser Black Backed was present along with a mix of around 70 Commons and Black Headeds.  Otherwise it was down to the usual Mallards, Kingfisher, down in the depths of the sluice gate, and about a dozen resident Crows which are always around the bread area meaning Mallard breeding is going to be poor this year with little chance of the ducklings surviving once again.
BS
                       

Hard work birding, Leeshaw

With mist still hanging over the tops it was head to the east side of the Nab avoiding the western ridge.
Leeshaw weather wise was dull with a cold SW>4 but good visibility
                                                             A very similar story to yesterday with just Mallards and small gulls on the water, Fieldfare, Redwing and Mipits in the fields and gulls in the air with no sign of yesterdays Curlews.
                               1500 hrs and the gulls started dropping in or moving through west with around 100 Commons and Black Headed mostly using the water whilst the big gulls moved straight through west with 38 Lesser Black Backed, 14 Herring and 1 Great Black Backed.
                               Two of the fields have now been muck spread, one holding around 50 Starling and a good count of 11 Pheasant in the other.
                             Not a good forecast for tomorrow with snow and then rain predicted , roll on March.
An e mail from a birder on the west coast reported that most of the Pink Footed Geese in his area have now gone so it looks like several moved after dark or they have followed the coastal route missing us which happened last year but there,s still time for a big push day yet with the remaining birds.
BS

Fogged off yet again at Fly Flatts

A bright morning with some sun and blue sky, that was until I got past the Withins to find black ice on the road with a temperature of 1 degree and fog patches.
                                                                   Down at the water the fog was mainly confined to the moor leaving the reservoir clear and some overhead visibility with the reservoir now fully thawed out.
                                                                 A walk along the west bank produced nothing bird wise as the fog started rolling in and within 15 minutes the whole area was blanked out. After that it was a case of the fog clearing partially only to be blanked out again by another blanket of fog.
                                                            In a desperate last attempt of finding bird life I checked around the boat compound but once again finding nothing so the 2 hours up there ended up producing me 2 Red Grouse. What a depressing place Fly Flatts can be in the winter months with so far no winter wildfowl on the water and just the one Snow Bunting.
BS

Leeshaw Reservoir. p.m.

Once again fog on the tops but luckily Leeshaw reservoir was just below the cloud base though dark and drizzly turning to heavy rain on a SW>4.
                                                                       Two Curlew back at Leeshaw across on the moor to the west right on schedule. The first back at this site 2017 was also the 5th Feb whilst last year the first back was on the 18th Feb and also back at Fly Flatts on the same day.
Several Fieldfare, Redwings and Meadow Pipits were in a field across the water which had been freshly muck spread along with around 50 Starling.
                                                                 4 Teal were on the water along with 8 Mallard, around 40 mixed Common and BH gull and 2 Herring gull. No geese present.
By 1530 hrs the rain was coming down in torrents so tackle up and back to base.
BS

Mixed up morning

                                 A sea of cloud over Halifax

                                     Mist in all the valleys

                                            Taken from Soil Hill

With thick cloud in the valleys and banks of cloud above including Fly Flatts Queensbury was in bright sunshine but bad road conditions with black ice. I headed for the nearest destination, Ogden, but as I got near traffic was queuing at the 4 way lights by Ogden Lane and the fog was rolling in so a quick about turn and back up into the sunshine of Soil Hill with the dogs expecting a walk.
                                                           As I unloaded the dogs a call from the gas man saying he was running early and would be at our house in 30 minutes so it was down to a quick walk up dog cack alley and back home.  Good Pinkie moving conditions in the bright skies above the fog but just a few LBB gulls moving.
BS

A very frozen Fly Flatts.

                                               Distant Buzzard over the moor

                                                 Then there were 2

                                                    Then there were 3

                       Disappeared over the western ridge

                                                  Frozen water

1445 hrs and back to Fly Flatts at last with the track clear and most of the snow gone although the reservoir is still 100 % frozen solid.
                                                           Some very black clouds over but mild and the wind dropping to W>4 at 6 degrees.
                            A walk the full length of the west bank only produced a few Red Grouse and 2 Pheasant whilst a single Stonechat was moving around the boatyard.
                               Back at the car a 30 minute sky watch produced a single Raven and 21 Herring gull >NE along with a quick showing of the Short Eared Owl over towards Slade.
                               A Buzzard was sat on a fence post over the moor before taking off and being joined with 2 more before all 3 headed over the western ridge at the NW end of the moor.
Nice to get back to Fly Flatts or it will be when the water thaws out which could take a while.
BS

EGP. Brookfoot Lock to Freemans Bridge

                       Around 30 Siskin in the Alders

  A brief and distant view of the Kingfisher

Most of the snow had gone off the tops this morning just leaving some icy patches but the mild front had brought in fog and  heavy drizzle so back down the hill to Elland Gravel Pits just concentrating on the canal stretch from Brookfoot Lock to Freemans bridge in order to avoid the crowds.
                                                              The fishermans lake was still frozen ove but most of the canal had thawed.
11 Cormorant were on the pylon whilst the canal side Alders held a flock of around 30 very mobile Siskin moving between the canal and river area. A Kingfisher landed briefly some distance from me but was soon flushed by bikers as I started to walk nearer.
                                                          No sign of Redpoll today with just the usual species seen otherwise. Nothing at Lane Head as I past  although there is still a tree full of berries just on Francis Street behind the lower Rowan.
BS