Ogden to Bradshaw

It was quite a bit later today when I finally manged to get me boots on.

We took Sue's ex-boss to the Golden Hind Fish and Chip restaurant in  Brighouse for the 'Old Farts' Tuesday/Thursday menu.

It say 'senior citizens' on the menu but you can hear,  'these are old farts' emanating slowly from the menu as if it were human, as you peruse it.

(Maybe not an beginning on the meal but certainly at the end).

Anyway you get Fish & Chips (salad in our case) bread & butter, coffee and a pud (Lemon Sponge and Custard for me) all for under a £10.

Very good value and excellent quality I might add.

(In fact I have added ? - what an odd saying).

Later on Sue dropped me at Ogden to walk off half of the calories.

First I went to try for the Common Redstart and then along the circuit to try for the Pied Flycatcher.

I manged to locate the Redstart but there was no sight or sound of the Flycatcher.

With the diversion for the woodland birds I only managed half the circuit today.

Birds:

Common Redstart.

2 Swift ( 1 over Bradshaw earlier).

Song Thrush.

Swallow, House Sparrow, 2 Heron, 7 Lesser Black-backed Gull.

Mallard with two Ducklings.

Raven, 2 Blackcap. Great Spotted Woodpecker (h).

Great Crested Grebe, Jay.

Mute Swan.

A Little Owl near the Moorlands Pub was a new location and nice addition to the outing.

Rook. Collard Dove.

St Aiden's rspb Swillington

White Rose shopping today was followed nicely by a long walk around the perimeter of St Aiden's RSPB Nature Reserve, Swillington.

Quite a tiring outing on a very mild but very dull kind of day.

'Masses' of birds here as you would expect but Waders (for me anyway) were difficult to come by.

I did a bit better with the Ducks and I was sure that I'd see the smaller Grebe Species but unfortunately I did not bump into any. 

(Maybe I should have enquired of the small Grebe sp. whereabouts before I left the visitors centre - dipped on the Little Owl as well - as if). 

Sue's patience held out until 3/4 of the way around when she opted to leg it to the café to leave me to wander slowly along.

It was nearly 4pm when we left, and we came home via Dewsbury, which proved to be a good move, missing the M62 roadworks today.

Going by previous visits here, this was not one of my better efforts.

Serves me right, I should stay local and await a mega.

 Birds:-

h=heard.

Blackcap(h).

Black Headed Gull.

Reed Bunting - very obliging many singing and showing well.

Chiffchaff (h).

Coot.

Cormorant.

Gadwall.

Great Crested Grebe.

Heron,

Herring Gull.

Canada Goose.

Greylag Goose.

Kestrel.

Lesser Black-backed Gull.

Lapwing.

Mute Swan.

Mallard.

Moorhen.

Sand Martin.

Oystercatcher.

Pochard.

Redshank.

Reed Warbler (h).

Sedge Warbler (h).

Shelduck.

Stock Dove.

Shoveler.

Swallow.

Swift (most I've every seen in UK).

Tufted Duck.

Whitethroat(h).

Willow Warbler.

and a few other common sp.

A few (mostly poor) photos:-

Leeshaw Reservoir - Oxenhope

A shopping trip to Bradford this morning and a walk along Thornton Cycle Track was followed by a run out to Oxenhope's Leeshaw Reservoir late p.m. / early evening.

Great to see a scream of c10 Swift fire past overhead as we crossed the Thornton Viaduct with a few other single Swift here also.

The usual birds along the track included a Great Spotted Woodpecker, Blackcap and Whitethroat.

A bright and breezy outing at Leeshaw this evening with plenty of noisy  Geese and Oystercatcher.  

A mega distant Wader on the far bank that I caught in a photo by accident is probably a Redshank?

Birds:-

Oystercatcher, Curlew, Lapwing (including Lapwing Chicks), Greylag Goose, Canada Goose, Mallard.

Swallow, House Martin, Pied Wagtail. Skylark.

Meadow Pipit. 2 Stock Doves.

Dunlin,2 Common Sandpiper. Redshank?

A Cuckoo called a couple of times from the west.

Little Owl.

A Female / Juv? Goosander looking very Red-Breasted Merganser like.

Redshank?

Local Circular Walk

A local circular walk along the local fields past East Croft Farm and through Crabtree Hall Farm up Ned Hill Lane, along Percy Rd and down Taylor Lane, home.

Just managed a cursory glance along Soil Hill main track today.

A cool-ish breezy outing, seemed colder than it looked today, or is it me?

Birds:-

4 Stock Dove, Little Owl.

Red Legged Partridge way up on a hill top.

Willow Warbler, Blackcap, Kestrel.

Skylark, Whitethroat, Pheasant.

2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls nearby.

Gulls high over Ogden, seen from Soil Hill.

Looking South East towards Howcans Bridleway

below Ringby Top - Swalesmoor.

Ogden (p.m.) and Thornton Cycle Track (a.m)

A mid-afternoon circuit of Ogden Water today, calm but dull, threatening rain, which stayed away until after I got home.

I tried for the Pied Flycatcher but could not locate it, however I believe I have got a snippet of its call /song on video.

This morning we enjoyed a short walk from Thornton along the cycle track to the tunnel entrance and back.

Some Birds:-

Thornton Cycle Track:

Swift, Blackcap, Whitethroat, Buzzard.

Ogden:

2 Heron (possibly 3) included 1 Juv.).

Song Thrush.

Common Sandpiper made a pleasant change.

A large c30 Long Tailed Tits moving through the waterside bushes was nice to see.

8 Mallard Duckling -  I wonder how many Ogden Mallards Ducklings make it?

Cuckoo calling from the West Side (distant), my 1st of 2022.

Lonely looking Juv. Mute Swan.

6 Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

A Raptor, high in the dullness, that I managed some poor photos of as it passed quickly out of sight is probably a Kestrel.

Yesterday evening's sky watch had  a short lived excitement, when a large bird flew high, from beyond Roper Lane and glided 'motionless' for ages before disappearing behind a farmhouse - it was a Heron alas!

A Pied Wagtail was on a house roof when I got back from Ogden.

Pied Flycatcher snippet.

(at the very end of a short video)

Two Kestrel Photos

Juv. Heron