Usuall Route Soil Hill etc

A pleasant dry day with overcast skies but thankfully no wind. Soil Hill was over the tops only. My first pr Grey Partridge the year which I saw twice during the stint there.

A pr Greenfinch, 3 Chaffinch ditto Skylark. Distant Curlews, singing 🎵 Mistle Thrush, couple Blackbird ditto Pheasant.

Ogden water: a total of 4 singing 🎵 Chiffchaff 👍. Pr Tufted Duck ditto Canadas. Pr Blackbird. The Raven called.

6 LBBG 2 Herring & 1 Common Gull. Many Woodpigeon seen throughout the walk and a Brown Hare.

Mixenden Res was poor again but it did cough up a singing Chiffchaff.

Great Unexpectations Ogden Water

Arrived at Ogden in more windy conditions and not too positive about seeing birds 😏. However I did get off to a fair start; the Chiffchaff was singing from the same spot and I got my first Greenfinch in some time - a pair of them 😊.

I nearly had an apoplectic episode just after departing ducky corner on the W bank. A pr of Redshank were stood on the shoreline 😜. They saw me, gave a couple of calls and took flight low over the water towards Skirden Clough. I took another thirty odd paces up the path when lo and behold a Redshank took off from under a bush on the shoreline and flew in the direction of where the pair had just left i.e the corner 👍.

No matter how I permutate this I have to conclude there were 3 birds present which is a first here for me .

A Buzzard called. 3/4 Common Gull were on the drink along with c16 larger gulls including 2 LBBG ditto Herring. No BHG seen guess they have headed for their breeding areas. A pair of Canada seen. A Mistle Thrush was singing 🎵.

Wednesday A Disaster Thursday Almost

2 successive days of mind bending Westerlies 😢. Wednesday spent at Crapstone Edge and 💩 Shiteholme.

The gusting wind scoured the area clean except for a pr Canada & a pr Greylag. 5/6 singing Skylark, c17 singing displayin Meadow Pipit & a couple Crows oh how dare I forget a Magpie!

Today Thursday at Cold Edge: 1 drake Goosander, 2 pr Tufted Duck. A dozen Greylag & c 30 Canada. 3 Pied Wagtail, 4 Lapwing & 5 Curlew. Mebbe 8 Meadow Pipit & 2 Skylark. 1 LBBG only on Mixenden Res.

Soil Hill Ogden Water Mixenden Res

A long slog today in decent dry weather taught me yet again that old age cannot be reversed. Soil Hill was a bind and if any common sense kicks in I won’t be doing it again. A look around the bottom bog had to be scrapped because of the aforementioned but also because machinery has chewed the land up creating barriers and mud baths.

1 Kestrel, 5 Skylark, 2 Moorhen, 1 each Meadow Pipit Curlew & Lapwing.

A couple more Curlew at Ogden plantation with a calling Raven overhead.

The woods at Ogden were busy mainly with singing common Tit species but I did get my first Chiffchaff of the year 😊. 3 Blackbird 🐦‍⬛ seen. Only a few gulls on the water of mixed sizes.

A very interesting sight was at the Skirden Clough channel where I witnessed 12 fat 🐸 🐸 s depositing uggins of spawn.

A Meadow Pipit and couple Curlew at Stod Fold. 4 Roe Deer here plus 5 seen at the earlier stages of the trek.

Mixenden Res not worth a mention.

Cold Edge To Mixenden Res

The much hyped rainfall failed to materialise 😊. This trip was an improvement on my last visit here by a whisker or three.

Curlew were thinly widespread and busy calling. 3 Lapwing seen including a pair acting territorially.

1 each Oystercatcher and my first Redshank of the year.

2 Skyark, 7 Meadow Pipit. 1 Blackbird. 2 Goldfinch. 1 Chaffinch ditto Dunnock.

4 Greylag & c30 Canada in the fields. Both dams were full of water only.

Mixenden Res didn’t have anything on the water. The woods were generally quiet - 2 Blackbird 1 Coal Tit & a loudly guffawing Green Woodpecker.

Wednesday A Duffer Thursday Acceptable

Only birds worth mentioning on Wednesday after another long trek were 2 Curlew at Soil Hill and a dozen of ‘em still at Stod Fold.

Today Thursday I went down to Low Moor via Shelf Moor. The skies were blue and empty and again only birds worth a mention at Shelf were 3 Meadow Pipit & a parked up Common Gull.

Harol Park lake was very busy with many assorted gulls and Canada Geese. A couple of Coot were on nests. A pr Tufted Duck and a GC Grebe seen.

Park Dam: pr Mute Swan, 1 GC Grebe and a pr Tufted Duck.1 Blackbird plus Woodpigs.

Soil Hill Ogden Mixenden

Yet another appalling session in a nasty cold E'ly wind.

Binoculars were surplus to requirements and the silence was alarming.

Soil Hill 5 Goldfinch and a Stock Dove in the garden At bottom of Perpendicular Road 🤓.

Ogden Water - forget it.

Mixenden Res ditto.

I nearly choked at Stod Fold when I heard a singing Song Theush. The bunch of Curlews are still present there.

Cold Edge Ogden Mixenden Res

Thankfully the wind was minimal sadly so was the birding 😏.

6 Greylag and plenty of Canadas around the dams but that was it. The only waders were the Lapwing pair. One of them was that close I thought it was poorly. On reflection it had probably picked up on my depression.

On the way down to Ogden a Raven called thrice. No passerines were heard from the woods anywhere. A pr Greylag on the drink and the gull mob.

A spirit lifter at Stod Fold: c19 Curlew were busy feeding 👍.

Best not to mention the end of the session 😞.

Low Moor Dams

A perishing N'ly blow cut through me and my ambition at Park Dam after the relatively milder Harold Park lake thanks to the trees.

The Park lake was throbbing with gulls. Plenty of BHG & Herring but just a few LBBs.

Just a single drake Tufted Duck stood out. A solitary Cormorant, 5 Greylag and several Canadas plus the Coots & Moorhens.

Park Dam had 4 Goosander, pr Greylag, pr GC Grebe ditto Mute Swan.

A surprise in the hedgerow as I was departing: a Long-tailed Tit flew along it and stopped twice albeit briefly. It appeared to have an all white head indicative of the northern race methinks.

Horton Bank Country Park

A couple drake Goosander. Several Herring and a few LBB Gulls plus BHGs.

Pr Mute Swan, a few Canadas, 6/7 Moorhen & 3 Coot.

Can’t remember any passerines calling. A few Woodpigeons.

Ogden Water Success And Embarrassment

Thanks to a txt from BS my intention of going to Ogden was set in stone this am.

I walked over Soil Hill top and got a Curlew before arrival via the plantation end and got another Curlew.

I was in luck the Whooper 🦢 Swans were very settled in a tight knit flock. I counted 45 birds.

Excitement clouded my judgement when it came to a couple of small gulls that appeared to have jet black hoods. Photos showed the heads as black but this was a trick of the strong sunlight. I eventually managed to get good views showing them to be BHGs 😑.

Another Curlew at Stod Fold. The fresh N’ly blow scoured Mixenden Res and there were only a handful of small gulls being blown around.

Mixenden To Cold Edge Dams

Circumstances dictated that I had to climb up Hunter Hill from Mixenden Res this fine sunny morning. Only a few mixed size gulls on the water but hey not to worry there was fathoms deep mud in the woods thanks to the fabulous biker 🚴‍♀️ boys 🤨.

Old age reminded me the hill is a mountain to climb and if common sense prevails I won’t be doing this route ever again.  3 Curlew heard on the way up and about a hundred Jackdaws. 3/4 more Curlew heard throughout the session.

A pr Lapwing & a pr Oystercatcher among the 100 or so Canadas. About a dozen Greylag also plus an overhead Meadow Pipit. A pr Tufted Duck on the smaller dam now becoming obscured by buildings under construction 😏.

Soil Hill Ogden Mixenden

A warm morning with a strong gusting warm wind. I braved the Hill from Hades and was rewarded with a Curlew and a Skylark on the top. Down at the bottom were about a dozen Lapwing and numerous Starling.

Another Curlew at Ogden plantation with a couple of singing Chaffinch. Ogden Water was poor just a few gulls including Herring.

Stod Fold produced a further 6 Curlew. These are the latest I’ve had in the past 4 years. In the previous 3 years I got them returning in the last 7 days of January

A Green Woodpecker was laffing its head off at Hunter Hill..

Mixenden Res had numerous mixed sized gulls on the water only. I chatted to a fisherman who stated that Whooper Swans in small numbers have been present there over the past few days “coming and going “.

Last Push Up In Portugal

The Sun replaced the Rain today Saturday 1st March. I had another long slog until old age took its toll and had a fair bit of satisfaction 😊. 

The 🦩 flock has risen to 36 birds. Oystercatcher numbers have doubled to 2 birds 😆. Spotted Redshank are doing well here and it’s a wader I really like to see. I got lucky photography wise with a feeding Spoonbill followed closely with a wading Whimbrel. 

A Pipit species was new for me here but the view was too brief for identification.. A Chiffchaff sang Swallows & House Martins gathered mud while a Green Sandpiper posed for one badly focussed photo then hid below a ridge of mud.