A very windy day today.. wet with it early on.

Some blah blah blah (That sort of day).

I dropped the car off at Queensbury M.O.T garage this morning. Had an hour to kill before I could catch the bus home so I went to a cafe. 

I had to pay £2.50 on the  bus!!! to early to use my old farts card.

When I added  my cafe bill to my bus fare , I could have got a taxi for the same dosh.

Late afternoon and a call from Pete telling me the car was ready left me one  minute to get to the bus stop or wait another hour for the next bus.

One minute is ( for a man in my superb physical condition ) ages really, and I caught the bus with at least 20 seconds to spare - result.

Early evening and I had a walk along the cow field.

This wind blew my brown flat cap off and I tried on 6 before I found mine... the old ones are the best!

ok enough Blah.

Birds:-

Still very windy.

Seen from the garden mid-afternoon were 5 Swift (in ones) that were flying into the wind struggling. Not often you see Swift struggling is it?

Local Fields:-

2 Little Owl (sheltering in different spots).

5 Mistle Thrush.

Small flock of Goldfinch.

6 or so Stock Dove.

7 Rook.

1 Swallow.

Woodpigeon and Lesser Black-backed Gull.

A few 'awkward' gulls in flight.

Out of the Wind!

Not a lot of birding

Not much birding these last couple of days and tomorrow the car goes into the garage and with the poor weather forecast I'll probably curl up and read The Beano.

This evening I had a short stroll up the local fields where a very skittish, small bird flew back and forth with a call I could not place.

It refused to land and eventually went towards Soil Hill.

I got a poor photo and took a video where the call is nearly inaudible.

It's probably a Greenfinch with laryngitis!

The highlight of yesterday, during a short garden sky watch was 3 Greylag Geese > East.

Birds:-

Stroll.

Wren, 7 Mistle Thrush, 4 Rook, Pheasant.

6 Stock Dove, Willow Warbler.

Lesser Black-backed Gull

and My Little Owl - which had taken to roosting in a tree.

Garden:

3 Greylag Geese.

Lesser Black-backed Gull.

A few pretty Butterflies.

My weeding of the path in the front of the house yesterday was met with some aggression from a Blackbird that has nested in our beech hedge - It's feeding young

My Mystery Bird.

Local Fileds

Not much birding time today just a short walk late evening along the local fields.

It was very dark and unusually calm for Bradshaw.

In excess of 20 Rabbits flitting about.

Birds:

Halifax.

Peregrine Falcon - see in  Halifax as we were shopping this morning.

Local:

2 Juv. Whitethroat.

Pheasant.

Willow Warbler.

Wren.

Canada Geese in the fields and Bradshaw Pond.

2 Mistle Thrush.

Swallow.

Bradshaw - Ogden Water - Bradshaw.

I am a bit strapped for time of late...

I  seem to be losing the plot , driving miles to find nowt but ..

Today I Just had enough time to walk through the farms and along Syke Lane to Ogden , late morning , coming back the same way.

Unfortunately I had no time to check out the Ogden woodland, just a quick circuit of the water, and quick coffee and a Twix in the 'cafe' then home.

A very dull day where I thought it was cold and with a forecast of some rain.......

For some unknown reason I put half my wardrobe in my rucksack to keep warm and dry.  However  as soon as I started walking it turned out to be very muggy and perspiration made me a visit.

Bye bye July (and Miss American Pie).

Birds:-

In the doldrums at the moment. 

Bradshaw to Syke Lane:

Whitethroat.

Little Owl.

Linnet.

4 Stock Dove.

Wren.

2 Linnet seen, more heard.

Goldfinch.

Chaffinch.

Kestrel.

1 Swallow.

1 Swift.

Mistle Thrush.

(Squirrel).

Syke Lane to Ogden Water:

Gulls at one point:-

c100 Lesser Black-backed Gull.

C20 Black Headed Gull.

6 or so Herring Gull.

1 Common Gull.

1 Tufted Duck.

1 Cormorant.

Goldfinch.

Willow Warbler.

Chiffchaff.

6 Canada Geese.

4 Swallow.

Garden:

Late afternoon I had a short sky watch where the usual Lesser Black-backed Gulls floated effortlessly high over head.

A Raven called several times, softly at first , the calls becoming louder as it neared me but I could not eyeball it!

A Buzzard that was over Roper Lane dropped down to my left and the same Buzzard or another one was seen high, miles off , over Oats Royd later on.

It's always a nice reward to see Raptors in the sky, pity these were so far off!

An evening stroll up the local fields added 6 Rook to todays list.

Ogden Water

Ogden late afternoon - more busy (car park wise) than I like.

The time is "nearly " right for me to get a lifer.

However, today around Ogden Water it felt more like get a life!

The 'cafe' was just closing as I passed so I was unable to increase my corporation today.

It was very mild and looked like rain , so I donned my waterproof gear, but no rain fell so I enjoyed an internal sauna.

Birds:-

C150 Lesser Black-backed Gull.

C100 Black Headed Gull.

Just 1 Common Gull Identified - asleep.

An 'unusual' light grey Gull with grey legs is probably a Herring Gull.

2 Heron.

2 Buzzard.

1 Cormorant.

Sparrowhawk calling (presumably juv.).

4 Willow Warbler.

2 Chiffchaff.

4 Canada Goose.

Mallard.

2 Herring Gull.

Herring Gull Maybe ?

Common Gull

Fly Flatts and Mixenden

Sue had a visit from her friend Helen so I took the opportunity to drive over to Fly Flatts.

It stayed dry but was quite cool and windy to start, improving as the walk continued.

The water level is very, very low with a large expanse of shoreline before any water is seen from my vantage point along the public footpath to the north of the water.

I enjoyed a nice walk, along the north and  a bit of north west paths, not spoiled by any scarce birds intrusions!

The only Wader I could find was a solitary Oystercatcher even though I did some very serious gawping.

Cold Edge dams had an airborne Black Headed Gull but it was to distant to see much from the road.

On the way home I stopped to have a very quick look over the wall at Mixenden Reservoir.

2 Goosander, that  were distant on the water, soon became even more distant, leaving north as soon as I eyeballed them.

Apologies for the quality or lack of quality of the photos.

Birds:-

Fly Flatts:-

Oystercatcher.

5 or so Lesser Black-backed Gull.

Pheasant.

Mallard.

Carrion Crow.

Canada Goose.

Meadow Pipit.

Pair of Tufted Duck with 2 Ducklings (again mega distant).

Mixenden.

2 Goosander.

10 Black Headed Gull.

Last Evening - Bradshaw Fields:

Fly Flatts:

Probably a Canada Goose - Rubbish Distant Photo.

Mixenden: