Thursday, 3 December 2015

There and black – Bradshaw to Ogden

13:30 – 15:30

After a trip to see Sue's dad at Ing Royde, where a power cut had left us all in the dark. I survived a trip to the Halifax Dunelm Shop & The Range this morning and we had a walk from home to Ogden and back this afternoon.

It was a really black sky this afternoon, it was so dark in fact,that with the camera on automatic setting it displayed a message  “nite shot – several pictures will be taken”.
Some of the pictures look 'ok' given the lack of light.

Looking at the dark clouds we were always aware that a real good soaking was not too far away.
To that end we did the quick step there and the sink-a-pace back. 

To be fair to Ogden birds, I did not give them much of my time today.

While walking up the bridleway opposite our house we were rewarded with a Green Woodpecker flying over, towards the farm below Roper Lane, a really nice start to the outing.

We turned left just below Rowe Farm to pass a couple of houses and through farm buildings to arrive at the south end of Ned Hill Lane.

There was c12 Goldfinch 2 Robin an several Balckbird seen by the farms.

It was 2pm when we arrived at Ogden but it was as black as night.

The water held the usual Mallards but only a few small gulls as far as I could tell.
A quick circuit of the water revealed a few Blackbirds , a Robin and the faint call of a Bullfinch was heard near the Car Park, and not a lot else.

In the fields near Stony Royd Farm , opposite Ogden Lane entrance, there were many small gulls. I would guess as many as 200.
Also here there were c60 Starling flitting about.

(Sorry Bri. nothing worth reporting again today - things will improve with the snow)

Surprisingly we only encountered 2 or 3 spots of rain throughout the  2 hour walk and the breeze was very mild for December!

Not one of my the best days out, but it beats sitting watching T.V. anytime.


Better luck tomorrow when I've heard,we are due beautiful sunshine (together with the free beer). 


The path towards the farms






A steel cormorant


A big steel cormorant


A dark and gloomy Ogden Water




Pretty Mallard Hybrid




"Nite picture" - camera did pretty well to compensate



Looking towards the "S" bend of Ned Hill Lane


Poor shaky shot but it gives an idea of the numbers of gulls




2 comments:

  1. Good that you got out and gave it a go John. We commented at work that it was almost dark at 1430 hrs. We badly need some cold frosty days.

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  2. It was a dark one today John, it wasn't easy trying to read address's on letters but glad to hear you got out and about for a few hours mate. Lots of Mistle Thrush's been visiting garden.

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