Bradshaw - Soil Hill (top) circular.

A late afternoon walk today and It felt a lot colder to me today.

It was a dull , dry outing and good exercise to boot.

Birds:-

Bradshaw Lane:

11 Common Gull.

Taylor Lane:

5 Mistle Thrush.

5 Fieldfare.

Large flock of c120 Starlings.

3 Red Legged Partridge (soon disappeared).

c40 Common Gull.

Soil Hill (top):

NK pond still frozen over.

Pr. Mallard.

2 Pheasant.

Wren.

Raven on the comms. mast.

6 Herring Gull Shay fields.

Percy Road:

4 Greenfinch.

2 Stock Dove.

Some very distance photos of Mixenden reservoir taken from the top road as we passed "earlier"  were not too brill! and I could not ID anything "special".

Mostly Black Headed Gulls with 3 Herring Gulls.

Distant Mixenden Gulls above.

Garden Pinkies

A long-ish garden sky watch this morning was very interesting with Pink Footed Geese moving from 10.00 a.m. ish to 11.00 ish.

It was good to get feedback from other birders from further west of me as 'my' Pinkies reached other places along their flight path.

All the Pinkies were very distant to the south or south east of me flying west.

I took photos but at this distance the photos are , obviously, pretty poor!

Some are just dark blobs!!

I estimates there were eight skeins and 733 birds in total.

One of my 'better' photos shown below.

A decent birding walk

It was Sue's day to visit Wilde's cafe at Cross Roads with her friend today so I made the most of my free time.

I was out for 5 hours - the ladies were still chatting away when I got back.

Today was a smasher with bright sunshine, especially this afternoon and little wind - just the job for a birding walk with the thaw working wonders.

Just a tad slippery around Ogden west side path otherwise pretty good.

I went up Taylor Lane over Soil Hill main path (mostly) then down Ned Hill Road and over to Ogden Water (via a natter,  coffee and Kit Kate in the cafe).

From Ogden I went down Boggart Brigg path and along the road past the Moorlands Inn.

I enjoyed a long-ish natter with a lady at the "Sportsman's Inn" (as was) flats before going along Cow Hill Gate Lane , Ingham Lane and Bradshaw Lane, home.

After watching some dog walkers on the icy bit at Ogden:-

Canine Dictionary Definition :

Pullover .....  An item worn by a dog to destabilise the owner's  balance in icy conditions.

Birds:-

Bradshaw Lane:

Little Owl (No:1).

7 Common Gull.

Taylor Lane:

Common Gulls.

c20 Starling.

4 Fieldfare.

Mistle Thrush.

Soil Hill.

(NK pond frozen over).

Meadow Pipit.

A few Gull airborne.

Ogden Water:

(Lots of water gushing in).

Disappointing really.

c70 Small Gulls - looked 50:50 Common / Black Headed.

1st Winter Herring Gull.

4 Chaffinch.

Goosander.

Great Spotted Woodpecker - north end.

Nuthatch.

Moorlands Inn Area:

Buzzard in a nearby field , obscured by bushes.

Little Owl (No:2).

Ingham Lane:

2 Stock Doves.

Bradshaw Fields:

Little Owl (No:3).

Common Gulls.

....Plus a few other species..

No 1.

No 2.

No 3.

1st Winter Herring Gull.

Common Buzzard.

No Birding and A bit of a fiasco.

This blog has got nothing at all to do with birding I'm afraid.

Today we decided to leave the thick damp mist behind and to visit Bradford City  (by bus).

The 526 took us from Bradshaw to Queensbury where very soon afterwards the 576 took us to Bradford.

The Bradford bus station is still not fully functional so we were kicked off the bus on Nelson Street.

We had a walk to look at the new Darley Street market which was .... not finished yet.

Afterwards we had a look at the "new" shopping precinct and after (too long) looking at the shops we called at Costa for a coffee and toast.

I fancied a Flat White coffee but when I saw it was £3.75 I gave that a miss.

They had no bread to do toast - so we left.

We decided to catch the bus home but when we got to Nelson Street a Bingley bus was 'waiting' for us so we had a plan.

Go to Bingley Wetherspoons for lunch - bus to Keighkey - 502 bus to Bradshaw - result.

This bus went to Allerton, Harden, Wilsden and a short trip to the moon!

At Wetherspoons they had run out of salad , the main ingredient in our usual Wetherspoons lunch.

So .... we left.

Next plan, bus to Keighley and  lunch at Wetherspoons,   Keighley some shopping and 502 bus home.

Wetherspoons was packed but we had an enjoyable lunch.

I actually bought some  fabric walking boots and walking socks  from Trespass then we headed to the bus station.

On the arrivals board the 502 description said

CANCELLED - great, next bus yonks away.

So we scratched our heads and decided to catch the Bradford shuttle back to Bradford.

We the caught the rush hour 576 to Queensbury. During the long, long journey I wrote my new 500 page novel before we even reached Horton Bank Top.

At Queensbury we had run out of options because we could not walk home with the pavements snow bound and the dark road too dangerous to walk along.

So.. we called at Marquis Taxi's on Chapel Street and caught a taxi home.

A long day out.

Local

Hello, Good Evening and Welcome and in a packed programme tonight you'll see....

Not much!

Late on parade today with a visit Halifax shops by bus on the cards this morning, early afternoon.

I did get a walk up the local fields this afternoon  to Ned Hill Road bottom and back, where there is still tons of snow, although it is a lot softer than of late.

Weather looking decidedly dodgy tomorrow alas.

Birds:

Little Owl.

9 (4+5) Red Legged Partridge.

2 Mistle Thrush.

Fieldfare.

3 Common Gull

Not much else other than Crow type species.

Slip Sliding Away

Sue dropped me at Elland Bridge on her was to see a friend, so I could 'enjoy' a very, very slippery walk along the packed ice towpath to the Crowell Bottom Area.

My boots have Vibram soles which I understand are the dogs ..... (oops) Bees Knees.

I thought the soles were made of glass today with me sliding about all over the shop and everyone and their dog marching past.

One chap had crampons on his boots and he was fair racing along - anyway - so what - I was not in a hurry.

It was good to chat with Mick , JB and  "junior" who were  by the Metal Bridge.

JB mentioned the Scaup and 2 Male Pochard that he had WhatsApp-ed earlier .

I did locate the Birds but the 2nd Drake Pochard took some finding as it was way over to the left (viewing from the railing) with many Tufted Duck.

The Birds here were really difficult to make out and I only got the Pochard from examining one of the several (poor) photos that I took of that area of the lake.

The canal was totally frozen in some places, partially frozen in others and free of ice in some areas.

A Spaniel decided to go for a dip in the canal, realised the errors of its ways and scratched it's  way onto some ice at the far side,  before being persuaded by its owner to swim back to him, where he hoicked it out of the water by its body warmer.

Ice and dogs are a pretty dangerous combination.

A very interesting day, but strapped for time as usual here, with Sue picking me up 2 hours after leaving Elland Bridge and me , Mr, Slippy taking ages to mosey along.

The bit of the  river side walk was good though with virgin snow to traipse through.

Later this afternoon I had a walk down Bradshaw Lane up Ingham Lane and past Crabtree Hall farm through the flooded field path, home.

A Fox was at the top of Ingham Lane.

Birds:

Elland - Cromwell Area Walk.

Mallard, 4 Mute Swan.

Common Gull, Black Headed Gull, Herring Gull. Lesser Black-backed Gull.

Coot.

Goldeneye. Tufted Duck.

Song Thrush, Long Tailed Tit.

Heron, 2 Nuthatch, Cormorant, Bullfinch.

Great Spotted Woodpecker.

2 Drake Pochard, Male and Female Scaup.

and a few other species.

Bradshaw Walk:

Mist starting to take hold as the slow thaw began here.

6 Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Common Gull over head

Not a Bonaparte's !!

Local Fields Late on - A slight thaw today

It was nearly dark by the time I got some birding with a walk up the local fields - but not far.

We called at White Windows, Sowerby Bridge this afternoon and I had a quick look around the gardens.

Birds:

White Windows.

Nuthatch, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Dunnock, Blackbird.

Local Fields.

2 Red Legged Partridge.

Mistle Thrush eating berries.

A Peregrine Flacon was on the usual chimney as we passed by on our way to Sowerby Bridge - a yearly tick.