Birding - it’s a Breeze

10.55 Ogden

Sue dropped me at Ogden for a walk about, on another wild morning.

Apart from the odd hail shower and the strong wind the walk about was ok really. At the North West corner of the res. it was as calm as a snore.

I had a quick look at D.S. Kingfisher spot but nothing doing.

As expected the strong gale was keeping birds at bay and keeping the water churned up. The majority of the water was deserted with just 22 Canada Goose and the Barnacle Goose, all amassed in the North West corner.

A Cormorant was very active diving for food ,and,given that I was trying to get a photo of it, in a sleet shower - not very considerate.

A really nice surprise was ONE Common Redpoll (unless of course it's an arctic - I'm certainly not clever enough to tell the difference) feeding in the tree tops.

Goldcrest could be heard flitting about low down near the waters edge , and after I waited around a while the Goldcrest made a fleeting appearance.

There were half a dozen Coal Tit feeding with a good few Great Tit, under the large beech trees.

I had a good 20 minutes noising about near the intake stream looking for the Dipper but with no success. No Dipper now in 4 trips here so maybe it’s nesting?

12:30

I left Ogden via the path towards the golf club.A Weasel was running on the path (the path was more like a stream) - second weasel in 2 days! - but it vamoosed before I could snap it.

Not sure I’m keen on these weasels types - can’t be good for ground nesting birds.

At the first opportunity I dropped down left, towards the stream in the bottom of the dell.The wind was non-existent here so I had a banana stop.

A Jay was sheltering from the wind allowing me to get a half decent pic. and a couple of Woodpigeon flew over.

Not a lot else came out to play as I took the path through the Moorlands Car Park and over the fields to drop down to Ingham Lane.

5 Woodpigeon were > W having a real old struggle.

As my mother used to say:-

“Not a day to be walking about with a lit candle”

Never did quite understand my mother.

Now you see it .......

Now you don't

No takers on the podium today

Going down to banana stop

I know it's windy but windy enough to rock a lane - Wow