√Another long traipse and another magic moment

14:45 - 18:45

Foreside Lane (again) to home.

After yesterday's disappointing outing in the rain, I thought I'd give Foreside Lane another go.

A different route today though.
The usual look around the bridleways and field path at the bottom of Foreside Lane before I headed up the lane to the very top. adjacent to Oxenhope Reservoir.

A left turn here, on a good path, emerges eventually high up on the Ogden Back Lane bridleway.

I thought I'd have a look for the Green Woodpecker that I hear calling, regularly, from the north west Ogden boundary.

Sure enough as I sat and had a choc-choc bar and looked at a crow type through the bins, the Green Woodpecker was seen in the field.

It was a long way off though.

It flew into a tree next to me and I got a glimpse of it but no picture.
It returned to a field nearby, and I had a walk in that direction but it had gone when I got there.

After a circuit of Ogden Water I took my usual route home passing over Soil Hill, along Percy Road, Taylor Lane and Bradshaw Lane.

During the outing I was well chuffed to get a real bonus of a Long Eared Owl, this time in a different location to my earlier sightings - magic.

Birds:-

M. Reed Bunting, Lapwing, Starlings (lots on the moors), House Sparrow, Meadow Pipit, Skylark, Curlew, Linnet, Swallow.
No Swift seen but on such a warm day maybe they were feeding very high up.
Chaffinch, Pheasant, Stock Dove.

Oxenhope Reservoir was mega distant but there was  possibly Greylag Geese here and Lesser Black-backed Gulls were lined up on the wall.

Woodpigeon, F, Red Grouse, Green Woodpecker, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Robin, Blackbird, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, Wren.

Ogden Water: 

27 Canada Geese, Mallard, 9 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 4 Black Headed Gull - no sign of the Tufted Duck.
Goldfinch, Jay, Dunnock, Magpie, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Kestrel, Pied Wagtail, 

And somewhere in all this a .... Long Eared Owl.

Soil Hill area in the distance

Soil Hill - a bit nearer, but not much.

Oxenhope Reservoir - on the camera's zoom limit

Oxenhope Reservoir - no zoom

Ogden Water coming into view

Struggling with this Gull but I think it's a 1st cy Common Gull.

Then again it's probably a LBBG after further book study!!

I've settled on a 2cy Lesser Blacked-Gull.

Looking back from Soil Hill

And a Mega....