Bradshaw - Soil Hill Circular

10:25 - 12:00 (ish).

I enjoyed a walk up to Soil Hill, a longish loiter on the top and then came back through the ruined farm buildings at Crabtree Hall Farm.

It was bright and sunny to start but the "Town Centre" thick cloud slowly creeped upwards to finally mug the sun.

Birds:-

c40 Fieldfare NNW over Bradshaw Lane.

Not a bird seen on Soil Hill Top.

c30 Meadow Pipit on Ned Hill Track.

Wren.

c30 Small Gulls in the fields with 3 Herring Gulls.

'My' Little Owl was flushed from a garden wall by a Weasel  at Ward's View House, Bradshaw.

Not a lot else!

A Pleasing Find At Ogden Water

10:15 -14:05

Abby had a sleep over on Friday night and stayed quite a bit of Saturday.

She was a very welcome visitor and banished the lonely blues for a while.

Today it was good to get my boots on again - a mild dull calm, mostly clear day where you could hear a pin drop on Soil Hill Top - a rare event.

I did my usual birding walk up and over Soil Hill down and around Ogden Water and home via Syke Lane and the Crabtree Hall Farm ruins.

Earlier, a Green Woodpecker called as I left the house to visit my recycling bin.

A Sparrowhawk was kind enough to perch on a wall to the west of the Soil Hill mast - but not for long.

Soil Hill was very quite as I did a stroll around the top hoping for a scarce Bunting but best I could do was a Skylark.

There were many Gulls at Ogden mainly on the WNW side.

I located a sizeable Chaffinch flock of c30 birds on the west side, but as usual on a Sunday, the disturbance was frustrating and after a 20 minute gawp at constantly flushing Chaffinch I moved along.

As I was near to leaving, approaching the bread lobbers area, I checked out a few Black Headed Gulls there and that ended with a smile on my face when I picked out a Mediterranean Gull.

The Med. Gull was asleep at first, stirred for half a mo, then went back to sleep.

The Gull sported 2 Leg Rings.

Only my second Calderdale Med. Gull.

The home route was quiet with just a Kestrel worth a mention.

Birds:-

Soil Hill.

3 Wren. Blackbird. Magpie. Crow. Woodpigeon.

Skylark. Sparrowhawk.2 Meadow Pipit. 

17 Gulls (Mostly Herring Gulls).

Pheasant.

Bradshaw.

Green Woodpecker. Kestrel.

4 Mistle Thrush.

A few Gulls in the fields.

Ogden Water:

Mediterranean Gull.

C100 Gulls on the WNW side.

3 Nuthatch.

2 Cormorant.

1 Teal.

Jay.

c30 Chaffinch.

Great Spotted Woodpecker.

A Day of Two Halves

Why is it we say two halves,  Half is two on it's own without the two.

Anyway A Day of Halves.

I had a cunning plan this morning, I was scheduled to meet with a friend at The  Golden Hind chippy for an old farts lunch. I thought I'd get there early, park up and walk along the canal to check out the Ski-Lake near Cromwell Bottom NR.

Anyhow I was delayed with roadworks at Shelf and also some further down at Hove Edge.

I walked along the canal but after a few hundred yards, signs appeared telling me that the canal path was closed at Granny Lock with some locksmiths updating the lock.

I did not have time to go the long way round on foot and having just forked out £4 for parking I wanted value for my money so I decided to content myself with just birding the canal that was available.

It was quite mild down here.

Later in the afternoon I went for a birding walk along the local fields to Ned Hill Road bottom and back.

Compared to Brighouse, the NE wind here had a nasty bite to it this aft.

Birds:-

Brighouse Area:

c30 Starling.

1 Fieldfare.

Mallards.

C20 Canada Geese.

1 Redhead Goosander - distant on the river - seen from the bridge opposite the chiippy.

Bradshaw Fields.

Little Owl.

150 Gulls - from a photo - give or take a GU. Together in one field.

Mostly Common Gulls with a good few Black Headed, a few Herring and the odd Lesser.

Pheasant.

Kestrel.

A Good few Blackbirds.

Not a lot else.

Passing by Keighley Road & Pavement Lane  Illingworth there were c100 Starling in 2 flocks.

Ogden Back - Lane and Water

12:50 - 15:30

A heavy shower greeted me as I walked from the car through the 'activity centre' and across back lane to Ogden Water.

It soon dried up and the rest of the outing was dry and cloudy with some sun - cold I thought today.

I had my usual coffee and Kit-Kat with the volunteers (Cheryl and Janice toaday) in the 'cafe' before doing a lap of the water.

Not as many Chaffinch seen today and I did not locate a Brambling but there were quite a few walkers and the maintenance gang had been out - so it's all their fault!

It was pleasing to walk along the north side path with "loadsa" Long Tailed Tit and Coal Tit here with the Robins and other Tit species.

Birds:-

c35 Fieldfare > NE, Buzzard, Great Spotted Woodpecker and Pheasant - Back Lane.

2 Cormorant.

Goldcrest.

Treecreeper.
Wigeon.

Kestrel.

2 Raven.

Usual Gulls as far as I could see.

Bradshaw Ogden & Soil Hill (Mon)

10:15 - 14:30

A dull , cool cloudy outing today along my usual route.

It was cold and quite breezy on Soil Hill Top.

A couple of visits to the Ogden 'cafe' warmed me up though.

At Ogden, I had a longish stint looking at the Chaffinch flock just over the wall on the west side hoping for a better photo of a Brambling.

There were at least 2 here today.

I waited patiently by a bench as the Chaffinch dropped down onto the beech leaves before shooting back up again.

Patience paid off and a Brambling dropped down to feed.

I got the camera on it,but before I got it focused, two large dogs came firing through, scattering the whole shebang to balzes.

"Oh dearie me" I whispered quietly.

Birds:-

Bradshaw:

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

5 Stock Dove.

c10 Blackbird.

6 Dunnock.

Pied Wagtail.

Little Owl (heard).

Ogden Area:

Usual Gulls.

2 Jay.

2 Brambling.

Pied Wagtail.

Kestrel.

c20 Goldfinch.

2 Bullfinch.

3 Mistle Thrush.

Great Spotted Woodpecker (Conifers bottom of Ned Hill Road).

Soil Hill:

2 Wren.

6 Meadow Pipit.

3 Partridge species flushed form the top.

Not a lot else!!

Bradshaw - Soil Hill - Ogden water (Sat)

12:40 -16:30

I got my timing all wrong today.

I was waiting for the fog to clear and after lunch a glimmer of hope appeared in the sky over Bradshaw.

I took this as a good omen and I set off up to Soil Hill.

Soil Hill was in thick fog alas and a trudge around failed to disturb much except a Thrush sized bird that flushed (silently)  from the bushes at the top of the north slope - lost immediately in the gloom - obviously a lifer!!

By the time I had walked down to Ogden the fog was on its way and the afternoon was quite sunny.

I had my 4th? stint trying to locate a Brambling in with the Chaffinch flock and although there were many Saturday walkers I was lucky to get a short quiet period where a bit of patience got me a Brambling that dropped down onto the path.

The water had plenty of Gulls but I failed to see any Ducks other than Mallard.

Birds:-

Bradshaw:

Kestrel. Little Owl. 4 Pheasant.

Soil Hill:

1 Meadow Pipit. 2 Wren. 2 Woodpigeon!!!

Ogden Water:

BRAMBLING.

Buzzard.

2 Nuthatch.

Kestrel.

Jay

2 Cormorant.

plus the regular Tits and Finches.

Bradshaw - Ogden Water - Soil Hill

11:10 - 15:15

It was a very foggy morning so I went to Morrisons to do some shopping, waiting for the for fog to lift.

Late morning it brightened so I headed off along along the local fields to Ogden.

I called at the 'cafe' and had my butty before doing a slow circuit of the water.

There were fewer punters here today and when I caught up with the Chaffinch flock on the west bank I was able to stand and stare at them feeding along the path, for 15 minutes  or so before being disturbed by walkers.

There were about 20  very mobile Chaffinch here but I did not locate any Brambling (again) which was disappointing.

Home was by a tough walk up Ned Hill Road. The temperature was probably 16 degrees so at Ned Hill Track I dumped my woolly jumper into my sack.

At Ogden I thought I got a long legged Wader and got well excited, firing out an awful distant photo of it out to the Calderdale WhatsApp Group.

As I got nearer I realised that the bird was a sleeping Teal? which was stood on a rock just below the water line with it's reflection in the water making it look very, very long- but not before I'd taken another photo of the wrong bird, a Mallard.

It reminded of some advise that my grandad once gave me ,after he had had his spectacles broken by a flock of Mallard that flushed and smashed into his face.

He always said "Let sleeping Ducks Lie".

BRADSHAW:

OGDEN WATER:

SOIL HILL;