Not Much Down Queensbury South

Hard to believe how bad this mornings walk was. Littlemoor Park was a write off 😥. The muddy track adjacent to the golf course produced 3 Fieldfare 2 Redwing & 5 Blackbird. The fields around High Cross Lane held c40 Starling a Common & c20 BHG.

Halloween beckons 😵‍💫 Angst and Guilt manifesting themselves. Reckon it’s time to

Shake Hands With Holy Ghost

Ogden Poor Again

Rock bottom birding in the fog at Ogden. Jay Raven Mistle Thrush. A fair count of Common Gull.

c60 Fieldfare at Stod Fold flew over to Mixenden and beyond. Again a fair count of Common Gull. A dark mantled very large gull evoked thoughts of GBBG but I discounted it as desperation.

Raggalds To Mixenden Res

Raggalds Flood: 33 Canadas 6 Common Gull 4/5 BHG.

Soil Hill top only: 1 Common Snipe (not too common these days). Pheasant 2 Meadow Pipit. Grey Heron on the bottom dullard pond.

A great spectacle occurred at Ogden 🌱 tation. A Magpie was being chased by a large Sparrowhawk which I took as a juvenile female. At one point the raptor was inches away from the maggot and both were only 3 yards away from me 😍👍. A few Chaffinch also here.

Ogden Water was really quiet but I did get a brief glimpse of a Little Grebe diving. Just a few gulls present.

Mixenden Res sported c15 Common Gull & a few BHG. A GSW called.

Ogden Water To Mixenden

Mixed Fortunes this morning after a poor start at Fogden 🌫️.

After completing a circuit enough daylight came through to identify 6/7 Common Gull and a count of 5/6 Herring incl. 2/3CY birds. The Dipper was again down in its favoured channel. A Nuthatch called and the usual Blackbirds & Robins put in an appearance as did a pr Dunnock.

7 Redwing showed near Stod Fold. A pr Raven were at bottom of Hunter Hill where I got my first Fieldfare of the year c15 of them.

A mixed party of gulls were on Mixenden Res. A Nuthatch called but that was it.

Some good news from a local lady who told me that maybe 5/6 Ring-necked Parakeets still visit her friends garden there.

Awful Birding Again

Silly me, I thought Bitch Babet might have dropped a morsel in at Ogden this morning. In fact it was barren on the water until 10 minutes before I legged it when 3/4 Common and a similar number of BHG dropped in. They elected not to stay however.

A Dipper was in the embankment channel. Others: 2 Jay 1 Bullfinch 3 Blackbird 🐦‍⬛.

Nothing on Mixenden Res (what a shock that is). A GSW & a Nuthatch heard.

A Barn Owl was seen but it didn’t show for long.

An Abundance Of Nothing

Oh I’ve had some bad spells but today at Ogden and Mixenden was a prize winner 🏆.

Ogden: 1 Cormorant & the usual gull gallery. A small Tit party.

A Stonechat at Carr’s Beck.

A Nuthatch called weakly at Mixenden where a few gulls were wave bouncing.

Elsewhere a Barn Owl just about salvaged my mental wellbeing (Who said Don’t kid yourself? 🥸)

Queensbury To Horton Bank CP

Unbelievably quiet in Littlemoor Park. 1 Great Tit calling a Mistle Thrush seen. The bottom adjacent bottom field has been ploughed up with Crows & BHG feeding there. Also 1 each Grey & Pied Wagtail.

Nothing bar gulls & a couple Rook at Shelf Moor.

Horton Bank CP was busy with the residents plus 3 f Goosander & one I suspect as juvenile f. Pr Mute Swan incl. leg ringed 1Y37. Also 1 Herring Gull & c42 BHG.

A Bad Birding Day

This has got to be the most disapponting session ever up Soil Hill and Ogden Water. Some compensation was sourced by a mammalian experience 😬.

Soil Hill: 1 Common Gull ditto Moorhen. Nothing else down the bottom nor the N slope tree line.

A flock of Tits Chaffinch & a Goldcrest was in Ogden Plantation where I came across a Stoat on a wall heading towards me. It was carrying a Field Mouse in its jaws! 🙀.

Rest assured my camera was safe at the bottom of my rucksack 😓. 5 Roe Deer 🦌 seen throughout.

Ogden Water: plenty of BHG 1 LBBG.

Ogden Water Carr’s Beck

A bright day with a couple of cold rain showers. Got a Buzzard over perhaps with primary problems on R wing. Didn’t show as well as the one I had soaring in Queensbury on Thursday as the photo shows.

3 LBBG 1 Herring & 3 Common Gull along with c25 BHG.

I looked at the prominent ring on the lead gull - of course I tried to turn it into Delawarensis who wouldn’t? 😁.

1 each Cormorant & Jay. A pr Stonechat at Carr’s Beck - that’s yer lot.

Vegan Disaster

The year is 2038 and Professors Henry Flan & Paula Zygote are busy experimenting with how to alter the gene structure in Homo sapiens so that they can only eat authentic vegan foods.

A catastrophe occurs in their Laisterdyke laboratory; an explosion of nuclear proportion that destroys half of Bradford - not all bad then eh?

30 years hence reports come in from India that Elephants are defending their territories against Tigers and Leopards 🐆 trying to eat their bananas and crops.

Birds have been affected badly Bee-Eaters & Flycatchers are seen picking berries and seeds up and ignoring their usual insect 🦟 prey.

A report comes in from Natal that a fisherman with a wooden leg got attacked by a Great White Shark.

The shark spat said fishermen out and chomped greedily on the wooden appendage.

TBC

Wednesday In The Rain

Ogden and Mixenden. Probably the most boring trip ever. 1 Cormorant & 5 BHG on Ogden with about 3 calls heard from the tree dwellers.

I managed to scrape up 2 Blackbird & 3 Redwing near Brookhouse.

I savoured a nice Pizza at Mixenden Res plus a Cormorant.

Soil Hill Ogden Water Then Nothing

During breakfast my thoughts were cast toward a local landmark Radio Mast. So I eagerly left the village and took a walk up to Soil Hillage. Come the hour for returning home the sweat 💦 did hastily and copiously spillage.

A passing Copper did a stopper, saying the preceding verse, in part, may rhyme but it really is poetic crime. Anymore like that and you’ll be doing time 😬.

1 Skylark 2 Moorhen 7 Meadow Pipit 1 Pheasant. The bottom pond was crammed with Dullards. I heard a few calls from a small party of Pink-footed Geese. They appeared to be flying over Thornton W>E 👍.

Ogden plantation and Back Lane: A Buzzard being chased by 2 Crows. 3 Cormorant flying over fairly high up. Another Skylark, 2 Chaffinch 1 Goldcrest.

Ogden Water: 2 Cormorant 6 LBBG c14 BHG. I’m glad I stopped for a break here because I espied a pair of Teal that previously the water did conceal 😁.

From there on...💀

Cold Edge Ogden Mixenden

I was so happy to get out on a dry day I did a big slog; never thought I’d end up with a sweat on in October 😬.

Cold Edge 9 Stonechat 1 Reed Bunting pr not too noisy Raven. c145 Canada 2 Greylag & the aberrant white job.

Owl pellet found near golf course

1 Kestrel being mobbed by 4/5 Crows. 5 Common Gull & 9/10 BHG 3 Goldfinch.

Ogden was best forgotten apart from a Dipper in the embankment channel. 1 Cormorant ditto LBBG & c14 BHG.

The only thing to mention about birdless Mixenden is that a prize Scumsucker was walking in the woodland with an Air Rifle mimicking Corvid calls.

Queensbury To Ogden Water

Raggalds Flood and rhe Sports Field held several small gull sp. plus a large one not clear enough for id. c170 Starling flying around.

8/9 Common Gull & 2 BHG were in a Perseverance Rd field.

The track up to the radio mast on Soil Hill coughed up 5 Stonechat 👍. A couple Meadow Pipit also.

Ogden Plantation produced a couple Goldcrest a small mixed  Tit party 3 Goldfinch couple Blackbird.

Ogden Water had the usual 3 Cormorant & a f Goosander. Just a couple BHG flew over the drink before leaving the place gull-less.

No point in mentioning Carr’s Beck or Mixenden. Oops 😬 

Ogden Water to Mixenden

A slow morale draining start at Ogden with just a lone BHG on the water 😟. It did pick up some 40 minutes later when there were 2 LBBG 4 Common Gull & 9/10 BHG counted.

Also 3 Cormorant 1 each Jay Kestrel Mistle Thrush & Nuthatch.

By the time I reached  Carr’s Beck the Robin count had hit 10. A single Stonechat was flitting along the wire fence.

Lo and behold a Cormorant had the audacity to spoil a Mixenden Reservoir blank, the rotter.