A Long Slog With Minimal Birds

A case of crashing back down to earth; Queensbury Soil Hill Ogden and Mixenden ☹️.

Gulls on the football pitch near Raggalds.

A dozen Goldfinch Perspiration Rd.

A Sparrowhawk at Ogden Water and the usual gulls only.

Carrs Beck still plays host to the very large Thrush flock.

A Barn Owl seen at distance.

Mixenden Res finally held good numbers of gulls both small and large but nothing else.

Cold Edge Nightmare Mixenden Dream

My worst ever visit to Cold Edge Dams so much so nothing is worth mentioning 😟.

I walked the boring slog from Withens down to the W side of Ogden not paying much attention. I now know from BS & DJS had I persevered I could have got a couple of goodies.

My spirits were raised yet again at Carrs Beck 😁. The sky was filthy dirty rotten with hundreds of migrant thrushes. Redwing were all over the joint with many Fieldfare in support. Several Mistle Thrush and a fair few Blackbird also noted.

On arrival at dreaded Mixenden Reservoir I noticed some dark blobs on the drink. The remaining teeth in my mouth nearly shot out into the trees 😳. The blobs turned out to be 6 yes six Common Scoter! I managed a few under par photos at distance for record purposes.

A Good Day Until I Left Home

An absolute downer. Ogden had 1 f Goosander and the usual gull mix. The trees coughed up a Greenfinch.

Mixenden also had a f Goosander plus 11 BHG.

One Barn Owl seen elsewhere.

Some Improvement Around Ogden

Another poor start at Ogden but it did improve as I went from there to Carrs Beck 😊. Just the gullage on the ullage and limited calls from the woodland.

At Brookhouse Farm I got my first Autumn batch of Redwings about 20 of them and my latest ever record. They were very flighty as I followed them up the track. This was a good move as I then picked up 4 Fieldfare 👏🏼 and a Mistle Thrush. A Kestrel flew low across the fields.

I had to give up on a couple of small finches owing to distance and brief viewing but Siskin sprang to mind.

One Barn Owl seen.

I’m sure you won’t mind if I don’t say anything about Mix…

Shelf Moor and Low Moor Dams

After a trip on Friday to Ogden and Mixenden that left me close to a breakdown 😢 I decided to avoid desolation row (1 Nuthatch & Gulls) and head down south today.

Shelf Moor produced only 17/18 small gulls and 4/5 Blackbird. The days of Lapwings appear to be over.

Harold Park lake was rotten with Coot & Moorhen. Must have been 20-24 birds of both species. 6 Mute Swan and loads of small gull species with a few larger sp. thrown in.

I managed to spy a solitary Little Grebe at a distance.

Park Dam held 11 Tufted Duck all in eclipse/female plumage. 2 GCG kept themselves around the middle of the water. Plenty of small gulls again with just a handful of big uns. 1 Jay.

Queensbury Soil Hell Ogden Route

A bright sunny morning at the expense of birds; in fact I’m trying to remember what they look 👀 like 🤔.

13 Common Gull at Foxhill and a Rook a bit further down the road.

A Good start at Soil Hill: 10 Meadow Pipit were being hunted by a Sparrowhawk. I think my intrusion probably caused the raptor to miss its breakfast. Thereafter nothing.

Ogden was a depression session 😢. The gulls and a f Goosander. The trees might as well not be there.

At least Mixenden was up to standard - nothing at all in vast amounts.

Horton Bank Country Park

A 35 minutes session around mid afternoon. Not much different from the previous visit except the GC Grebe has gone.

Nothing heard from the trees so it was down to the gulls to keep me focused. Many BHG, 3 Common Gull, couple Herring ditto LBBG.

Mute Swan pr, Coots and Moorhens in small numbers. A very active Cormorant only showed a couple of times.