Abandoned Session At Ogden Water

The winter weather persisted and then I encountered another issue that caused me to abandon the walk.

The gate at the start of the promenade which takes you along the E path is locked.

This is due to hard core material being laid down on the surface and is expected to take at least a week.

To take a circular walk around use the gate at the W side and after turning right around the N end you have to use the woodland path to get back to the Car Parking area.

The birds were almost non existent.

Horton Bank Country Park

Not good. Hirundines and Gulls absent. Just the regular locals.

1 Grey Heron. Canadas with young. Coots and Moorhens down to a couple each.

On the bright side the Mute Swan nest that I feared for on my last visit is still there in the precarious location still intact and occupied.

1 Whitethroat, 2 each Chiffchaff & WW. Loudly singing Song Thrush. 

Ogden Water To Mixenden

Another grim unSpringlike day but despite the wind I managed to keep my Toupee in place. Kicked off at Ogden with a pair of Bullfinch my first sighting in almost two months.

A few Singing Warblers were in Diminuendo. A Song Thrush did make its presence felt. 3/4 Swallows knocking around. I got the butt end of a Tit sp. disappearing into a nest box. Small party of Goldfinch heard.

A single Herring Gull flew around and an Oystercatcher flew over my head calling before landing on the N end of the E shoreline. One Grey Heron working the W shoreline.

A Skylark on the golf course and a Curlew further up Hunter Hill. Green Woodpecker near Mixenden Res which sported a few Swallows, couple of Blackcap, Chiffchaff and a Whitethroat.

Windy Cold Edge Dams

Winter still with us eh? The very fresh N’ly blow made the first half of the trek up to the old ruined house dull however things picked up on the return leg.

1 Wheatear, 3 very noisy Stonechat, 5 Linnet.

5 Curlew, 1 Redshank. An Oystercatcher heard briefly.

Pr Tufted Duck.

A pr of Lapwing in a field busy with Canadas and Greylags.

1 singing Song Thrush, 6 Blackbird, 4 WW, 8/9 Swallows.

A few scattered Meadow Pipits.

A Change Of Venue Low Moor

After a poor Monday at Ogden (Grey Heron x 2 + 3 LBBG and no maddening mystery vocalist) I opted for Harold Park and Park Dam this morning.

Another cracking day of January weather interspersed with the odd effort from March saw a very good number of Swallows at both locations. 3/4 House Martin sticking to Harold Park Lake.

1 GC Grebe at HPL and a courting pair at Park Dam which held 10 Mute Swan versus 1 on the park lake.

Coots have produced several young both on the Jug Dam and HP lake. It was interesting to see both parents of a brood of 6 attack both a Canada Goose and the Swan.

8 Tufted Duck on HPL and another 4 on Park Dam which also coughed up 4/5 Herring Gull and 13/14 LBBG.

 Couple of singing Greenfinch heard.

Ogden Water Mystery Singer Solved

Perseverance pays off. The singing bird that nearly drove me sane 🤓 was a Pied Flycatcher. My defence for not knowing sooner can be put down to: lack of familiarity in our area plus old age and ignorance. The joys of being a second rate birder spring to mind yet again Yer can’t knock me off the top spot that I have never occupied 😎.

A Bit More Action At Ogden

A day that brought back memories of January weather and for the first 35 minutes thoughts of nothing doing again! Usual culprits: Blackcap x 2 and WW plus Chiffchaff x 7 + 5. The Grey Heron was in the same area as the last visit.  

15 minutes before I hit the promenade it picked up considerably. The mystery singer was blasting away again so this time I took a sound recording to try and clarify the varmints identity.

I then got a pair of Swift not too high up and a Cuckoo calling from a distance. I stress it wasn’t the song From A Distance it was the location 🤓.

Also a Swallow, Mistle Thrush, Skylark & Whitethroat.

A Curlew and an Oystercatcher were at Hunter Hill.