Everything Almost Witheld

A hoar frost was coating everything as I left the hotel, even spiders webs. The Sun was occluded by a silver mist which also did the number on my spirits. I headed up the front for miles then decided to try the Dunes (one day I'll do the Julys too). Here I finally got a non gull bird; a close fly by calling Sanderling.

Another long spell of ghost story weather, then at around 1305 hrs the Sun shook it's head, belched and lit the place up. Off I went down to the vast marshland which was still frozen around the edges but did give up some morsels.
A couple of thousand Wigeon and several Teal plus Dullards but yet again no Gooses which is a first for this, my fourth visit.

A Marsh Harrier flew around cheesing off a few Lapwing. I inadvertently cheesed a Snipe off and 5 Reed Bunting aptly appeared in a reed bed. Several Redshank were trying their best in the areas that Jack Frost didn't care for.
A bird I've not had here before was very welcome which called obligingly a number of times while perching on 3 occasions, a Water Pipit.

Finally, on such a high note even if in a physical jelloid state I pushed myself on to the favoured area of beach for Mediterranean Gull and was rewarded by 7 such birds with nearly all having half developed summer hoods.

Witheld Location

Wednesday Coastal jaunt and by jove it was cold, sunny and sometimes hard work but overall enjoyable.
32 Turnstone, 4 Purple Sandpiper, 1 Rock Pipit, few Cormorant, Gulls, 1 Greenfinch, 2 Pied Wagtail.

Location Witheld

Monday 28 Jan.
From the coach: 1 Little Egret, 2 Grey Heron, numerous Lapwing & Golden Plover. Hundreds of Canadas & gulls, several Mute Swan. Only one raptor seen, a Kestrel. It was very bright and very cold, not soaring weather so I feel the bigger brethren had buggered of.

Tuesday 29 Jan.
Bearded Tit, 4 Mediterranean Gull, several Ringed Plover, numerous Dunlin & Redshank. Oystercatcher, Turnstone, few Curlew, numerous Lapwing & Golden Plover. Several Mute Swan & Teal, numerous Wigeon. c13 GBBG, troops of Common & Herring Gull, squadrons of BHG; I'm not sure I got any LBBG.
One thing I am sure of there wasn't a single Goose seen which I'm putting down to the very cold weather.
Loads of Starling, 1 Pied Wagtail, 2 Meadow Pipit.

I may get the chance to publish some Med Gull pictures; that's if I haven't licked them off the camera first.

Queensbury South

0935-1055 hrs in a HoooOOOOooowwwling wind. Birdwise however twas awfully quiet.
Littlemoor Park 11 Chaffinch, 4 Blackbird several Blue & Great Tit, ditto Crows, few BHG.

I got an Herring Gull in High Cross Lane which looked rather lost; the bird later joined the Lapwing flock some 84 strong in the usual fields.
Apart from a Pied Wagtail and some House Sparrows that's yer lot.

Brighouse and Cromwell Bottom

How could I resist a trip down Waxwing Boulevard courtesy of DW, along with DM. Several Redwing & Waxwing were waiting for us on arrival and although very flighty due to the heavy traffic, we all got very good views of them.

Cromwell Bottom: Buzzard, 18 Cormorant, 4 Teal, numerous small gulls. c9 Bullfinch, 5 Reed Bunting, Nuthatch, pr Little Grebe, ditto Goosander, few LTT, etc. 4 Jay having an altercation with a Tree Rat. 1 Grey Heron.

Brighouse Waxwings and Redwings

This morning around 1025 hrs I had two kind offers from DP & DW to ferry me down to the Waxwing site. I had to reluctantly turned down both these gentlemen as I had an appointment with the Hangman  Willows Medical Centre.

I'm pleased to say both Daves got the birds, as apparently so did many others. These great shots were all taken by DW; thanks very much Dave. I may get to see them come the morrow, who knows.

Queensbury to Mixenden

The title describes the walk; the birds didn't begin to feature until Ogden. Still I can put a pure unadulterated blank down for the foggy Hill from Hades.

Ogden Res: pr Goldcrest ditto LTT & Jay. First Green Woodpecker of the year flying.
Couple Goldfinch, 3 Redwing, similar Blackbird. The embankment was full of workers so no chance of anything lurking.

Mixenden Res: 3 Cormorant, 1 f Goosander, pr Goldeneye, 7 Dullard & an epidemic of gulls which I had no time to peruse closely.

Queensbury Pinkfeet

Hell and damnation! I was conjuring up my next tirade about the paucity of birds in the parish when at 1115 hrs I stepped into my front garden only to be met by the sight and sounds of c30 Pink-footed Geese flying over the road and over DP's house heading > NW.
Drat and double Drat, Grrrrrrr.

Swillington Ings

Courtesy of DP. A different experience from the previous outing with the cold wind making us having to work hard for the birds resulting in some species escaping our beady eyes.

1 Kingfisher ditto GSW, pr Shelduck, f Goldeneye, c8 Goosander, 6 Pochard ditto Curlew. 1 Grey Heron, c12 Cormorant, numerous Teal, Tufted Duck & Wigeon, c15 Shoveler. Pintail down to one male.

Numerous Lapwing, c10 GBBG, few Herring Gull. 5 Reed Bunting, c10 LTT & a squadron of Redwing, 1 Stonechat.
Canada & Greylag in plague proportions.

Queensbury to Mixenden

When will I learn to abandon this boring barren avian wasteland?
Poxhill Park: few small Gull sp. mainly Common. 1 Greenfinch.

Soil Hell: 9 Meadow Pipit.
Poxden Res: Kestrel, 10 LTT, couple Goldfinch,  2 Miserable Thrush.

Goodbye Gioldeneye

Hello Goosandeer

Poxenden Res: 1 Miserable Thrush, 3 Goldeneye, 1 Goosander.

I checked Poxifax Bus Station bottom for Waxwing; nothing doing at 1325 hrs.

Soil Hill to Mixenden

Not too exciting, in fact there were lots of birds I didn't see.
Greenfinch & a few Goldfinch bottom of Persecution Rd. 3 Meadow Pipit on Soil Hill.

Ogden Res: 2 GSW, 4 LTT & Chaffinch ditto Canada, Quite a few Blackbird en route to Stod Fold.

Mixenden Res: Cormorant, 3 Goldeneye (2 m, 1f) in company with the f Goosander. Pr Grey Wagtail, Nuthatch & many gulls incl a few big uns.

I checked the bottom end of HX Bus station in the rain, nothing but a corvid or four.

Swillington Ings

A memorable day out courtesy of DP; even though at times the wind was cutting right through us, the birds we saw made it all more than worthwhile.

c30 Curlew, c36 Golden Plover, several Gadwall, 3 Goldeneye,  several Wigeon ditto Teal, 3 Pochard, c12 Pintail, c25 Shoveler. c500 Lapwing, several Tufted Duck, f  Marsh Harrier, Kestrel, 8 Siskin, c18 Lesser Redpoll, 4 Bullfinch, Little Egret, 2 Grey Heron, 2 GBBG, 4 Reed Bunting, several Cormorant. 5/6 Goosander, 2 Meadow Pipit, 2 Water Pipit, Pied & Grey Wagtail, Buzzard.

Also 5 GC & 2 Little Grebe, large flocks of Canada & Greylag plus numerous small gull sp.

The Water Pipit were particularly welcome; this being my 5th attempt at their favoured site before hitting paydirt.

Queensbury and Ogden Res

Sunday 6 Jan Queensbury Sth a poor session indeed.
1 each Mistle Thrush & Greenfinch, 7 Chaffinch, Jay heard. Pr Dullard, few small gulls, 1 each Moorhen, Herring Gull & Snipe.  .

Stormy Monday 7 Jan Ogden Res. I really should have gone to the Psychiatrist but felt guilty about wasting his/her time, so I opted to get soaking wet.

Ogden 1155 hrs. Gash but as expected and amazingly I did get 2 newbies for the 2019 list. On the water besides the dullards and small gulls was an adult LBBG. A sizeable flock of Jackdaw were over Boggart Brigg. Annual no.1 was a pr Goldcrest and against all odds no.2 was a Kingfisher seen in flight down the embankment overflow.

Low Moor Dams

Harold Park Lake 1030 hrs quickly abandoned owing disturbance by Homo Sapiens and Lollopus Doggus. Pr Mute Swan ditto Tufted Duck seen among the commoners.
Park Dam was better: 2 GCG & 3 Little Grebe. 13 LBBG & 3 Herring Gull among the smaller sp.

8 Tufted Duck, several Coot & Moorhen. 3 Blackbird, c11 Goldfinch, 1 Greenfinch, 4 Redwing ditto Brambling which is a personal site tick here. Also 3 Cormorant.

All things considered, especially the cold, tweren't a bad session at all.

A Moorland Walk

Courtesy of DW along with DM on a cold grey but calm morning with some good birds being seeing in total after a spell of absolute nothing for about an hour.

Stock Dove, Mistle Thrush, Kestrel, c30 Red Grouse, Goldfinch, Dipper, 3 Treecreeper, Blackbird, Common & BH Gull, Pheasant. GSW, Robin, Nuthatch. Collared Dove & Wood Pigeon.

Oh and lets not forget a distant Hen Harrier.

Queensbury South New Years Day

0925-1120 hrs in mild bright weather. Littlemoor Park was a good start before hitting the open areas where things fizzled out somewhat. A modest 24 species clocked up but I'm sure it would have been less had I gone up the Soil Hell route.
The Park birds include 1 Bullfinch, 3 Fieldfare, 2 Mistle Thrush, c25 Redwing, few Goldfinch & GSW.
Open fields include Pied Wagtail, Moorhen, 2 Snipe, few Goldfinch & a late show of c21 Lapwing.
I failed to get Collared Dove, which at one time a few years back would have been a certainty.

DM sent me a Wots App; he got 2 Buzzard, Greenfinch & Siskin among others this morning, down in the valley.