Ogden Water To A Mixenden Migrant

I’m happy to have pushed myself this morning as at the last push-up I was magically rewarded at Mixenden 😋. A drake Common Scoter was present and in keeping with tradition about as far away as possible for a good photo. No complaints though as it’s been a while since this place has delivered.

The Whitethroat & Chiffchaff still singing along with a Goldfinch.

Ogden was hard graft and miserable in the rain but finally saw the return of BHGs - 3 of  them. 2 LBBG & a Tufted Duck also on the drink.

Singles of Blackcap WW Chiffchaff & Curlew also here and a couple Goldfinch. 2 Swallow.

Cold Edge Dams To Mixenden

Has to be the most boring trip I’ve ever done even if I did get a mega Dunnock 🤓. The dams were empty apart from a Moorhen. One LBBG flew over and Canadas numbered around 22.

3 Curlew, 3 WW ditto Swallow. 1 Lapwing, 1 Reed Bunting ditto Pied Wagtail & Greenfinch. 2 Linnet, 7 Skylark less so Meadow Pipit. 1 noisy Raven.

Mixenden was dire (now ain’t that unusual?). Apart from swimmers and dogs a Chiffchaff & a Whitethroat were singing.

Blackstone Edge To Whiteholme

A pleasant day for walking but not for birding; very few species seen.

Blackstone: 1 Common Sandpiper & a few Canadas.

Whiteholme: 1 Common Sandpiper ditto Tufted Duck. More  Canadas. 

1 Kestrel ditto LBBG. 5 Skylark & c20 Meadow Pipit plus a few Crows seen in between the two reservoirs.

Ogden Water To Mixenden

Back to fabulous local birding 🥸. Ogden was quiet. I realise that the absence of returning BHGs is down to a delayed and disastrous breeding season 💦💨. 2 LBBG & a Herring Gull present.

2 Grey Heron, couple Chiffchaff & Blackcap, 1 each WW & Song Thrush. Couple Curlew heard over golf course.

Surprise at Mixenden! I got a pr House Martin low over the water -my first of the year. Also a Grey Wagtail and a GSW.

Final Albufera Marsh Slog

Today I finally accepted that this gigantic reserve is too much for a person of my advanced years (coming up 43 next Tuesday 😅). About 4 access routes from yesteryear have been blocked forcing one to wander unnecessary miles and not see birds 🥸. 

Got 2 Marsh Harriers one high upstairs but the other cream crown took off from a field showing rather well.

Two Red-Knobbed Coot came so close I requested them to back away for photo purposes - they ignored me, the swine

Managed another couple Great Reed Warblers singing as were a couple Reed Warblers. Otherwise same old BW Stilts, Avocets, 2 Egret Sp. & 🦩. Sardinians, Cettis, 1 Hoopoe.

All the expenditure all the miles and years I have forfeited and still not a single Dunnock 😢.

Albufera Marsh Marathon

I never seem to learn from past experiences in this vast reserve. I revisited 3 hides that produced oddments in the past but are now dried up and overgrown. This foray really added miles travelled ring circles to my leg muscles. A reward came at the last gasp before exiting, a male Marsh Harrier which showed thrice 👍.

The main hides were busy as usual Kentish Plovers en masse supported by BW Stilts Avocets etc. One species notably absent is Crested or Red-Knobbed Coot. DP was here at peak migration and he didn’t report it either.

5/6 breeding Common Tern, 15 sub adult phase YLG.

I finally got Barn Swallow right in the back of beyond about 9 of em. Couple Hoopoe and a roadkill Blackcap.

Doh! How could I forget Little Bittern and Great Reed Warbler tiredness and old age I reckon 😢

More Mallorca Birds

Quit reading now while you’re still ahead. Finally got a very good bird for my troubles a Collared Dove 🤓 Otherwise apart from one particular incident it was mundane.

Newbies: 5 Bee-Eater, 3 Marbled Duck, 1 Buzzard, 2 Little Grebe, 2 Sardine Warbler, 1 Sparrowhawk.

I found out why the LRP was bothered about me the other day. I was sat on the hide steps and noticed it had parked down on the stony patch.

There were bicycle tyre tracks just inches either side of the nest 😢. Oh and should the Birding Polizei be reading this do note that I took this photo then immediately scarpered like a shithouse rat 🐀 up a drain.

Usual species mentioned previously still present including several Swift however still no hirundines! 

Albufera Reserve Heaving

A poor day in very warm conditions can’t wait to get out of here.

Breeding Little Egret numbers exponentially exploding and many more Cattle Egrets than my last visit 11 Months ago.

Grotty Ibis on the increase also.

Luckily I managed a single Night Heron 😘.

A pr Blue-headed Yellow Wagtails feeding young and a Black-headed ditto.

I had the misfortune to have a Little Bittern take off a few yards in front of me then sweep across my field of view.

Numerous Flamingo, breeding Common Tern, Avocet, &  BW Stilt. I thought one of 4 Kentish Plover was trying to get into the hide until I saw a 🐥 probably about a couple days old max. 3 LRP.

Nightingales, Cettis, couple singing Spectacled Warblers. I will never moan about Ogden nor Mixenden again

Oh wait hang fire on that…😂.

A Session With Sr Al Bufera

Such a busy long session I am tempted to relate my enthrallments in instalments. Let’s start with a really cracking experience shall we.

Halfway through, I sat down to log my sightings on my voice recorder. Amid all the greenery was a small bare patch of sandy stony ground. A wader came onto it and surveyed my trespass allowing for a few acceptable photos as it peered at me. It was a Little Ringed Plover 😜. Another one was seen well apart from this in the salinas.

7 Greater Flamingo, c44 Shelduck, c22 Pochard. 1Purple Swamphen. 10/11 Black-winged Stilt ditto Glossy Ibis. 3 Avocet, 1 Purple Heron, Little Egrets into the mid teens.

4 Balearic Flycatchers (aka our Spotteds). 4 Nightingales. I found a dead Swift and picked it up; about 3 million 🐜 ants immediately informed me they were upset by this behaviour. I’ve had enough and can’t continue (who said thank gawd for that?).

PS 4/5 Cettis Warbler, 2 Grasshopper Warbler, 3 Stonechat ditto Zitting Cisticolas.

A Queensbury Wind But Reasonable Birds

Grey skies here this morning and a solid wind from the E in general. 

First bird of the day on a busy street lamppost a Spotted Flycatcher 😜.

8/9 Shag, 6/7 YLG, pr Audouins Gull, 1 Common Tern 👍. 

Pr Kentish Plover. 1 Little Egret, 2 Coot. 4 Stonechat, 2 Crested Lark, 3 unid finch jobs.

Goldfinches, Serins, 2 Nightingales 😍. Sadly no Dunnocks but yer can’t have it all.

I’m not in Calderdale by the way 🤓

A Depressing Session Abandoned

The W'ly wind today has got to be the worst I’ve experienced in summer since I arrived in this area some 60 odd years ago or so it seems.

Only a pr Lapwing, 1 Pied Wagtail & 3/4 Swallow at Raggalds, not a sign of the Oystercatchers 😒.

A Swift at Soil Hill then nothing at Ogden plantation and nothing on the water. A brief call from a Buzzard. 3 Blackcap & a Chiffchaff from the woods.

I couldn’t face the blast anymore so I called it a day and didn’t go onward to Mixenden.

Cold Edge Dams Again

Erm, Scientist Dudes, yer know this global warming thingy right? Well, when are yer gonna transport a load up to Yorkshire?🤔. A session in cold rain and winds with alternating blue and grey skies.

Despite this Redshank & Oystercatcher numbers increased from 2 birds to 3 each respectively 👍. 4 Lapwing & 6 Curlew. Although I never left the track one Curlew insisted on yelling at me while flying low overhead.

Yet more signs of predation; I found 3 Lapwing eggs that had been plundered.

1 Skylark, 5/6 Meadow Pipit, c55 Canadas, 5 m Tufted Duck, 1 LBBG upstairs. Couple each Goldfinch & Linnet, 4 Blackbird. 2 Swift, 3/4 Swallow.

Raggalds To Mixenden Res

Good to see the Oystercatcher pr still on the scrape at Raggalds and the pr Lapwing too. 3 Swallow flew over.

Went over the tops of Soil Hell only. Pr Goldfinch. 2 Skylark, 2 LBBG over as was a Swift. No id on a flying partridge sp. 1 each WW & Whitethroat. Distant Curlew calls.

Ogden Water: 8 LBBG. 1 m Tufted Duck. 1 each Blackcap & Chiffchaff 2 WW. 1 Swift.

Mixenden Res: 2 Swimmers, 11 Dogs, 4 Swallows.

Cold Edge Dams Visits

Went to Cold Edge on Thursday and then again this morning.

Thursday was fairly quiet apart from a brief sighting of a sensitive breeder and 5 LBBG on the lookout for eggs and chicks. A Lapwing gave one of them short shrift.

Today: 1 Common Sandpiper, pr Oystercatcher, 4 Lapwing, 5/6 Curlew.

3 Tufted Duck, 7 Greylag, c40 Canada. A pr Stock Dove are my first for quite some time.

I found evidence of predation again. A Mallard 🦆 egg broken with blood n stuff showing and a pair of legs and a breastbone that looked like medium wader remnants 🤔.

3 WW,  5/6 Swallow, pr Linnet, pr Grey Partridge and strange noises coming from reeds that I cannot identify for the second time running.

5 times on the trot nothing on Mixenden Res. 😫