√Leeshaw Reservoir Oxenhope

13:50 - 15:40

A drive out to Leeshaw for me this afternoon.
The rain that had plagued this morning, thankfully had abated and packed in by the time I arrived at Leeshaw.
It was mostly dry, cool and quite breezy today.

It was pleasing to bump into KM . 
We had a quick chat, I was about to leave for home.
He was on Gull patrol with scope at the ready.

Lots of noise here today with Oystercatchers in good numbers, Curlews calling, Lapwings up and about and a couple of Redshank all competing for Noisiest  bird of the day.

Top of the pops today was a couple of Snipe.
A difficult bird for me to get a decent sighting of, but today one obliged.

First up, just as I left the car, a potential Tern.
I had just got the bins and camera round 'me neck when I heard a call high overhead, but very distant.

The cropped picture is 'just good enough' to ID a Tern - but it needs to be a lot better for me to ID the species of tern!!

I took a few really poor photos as the bird left > North.

The Gulls had decided to camp out at the far end of the reservoir, out of the wind, nearly out of sight from the main path.
With my renowned Ace Gull ID skills it made it even more difficult to ID them.

A Heron was on the banking with the Lapwings.
The Lapwings didn't seem to mind - which I though odd.

It was a very enjoyable outing with the bonus of not getting wet!

Birds:-

11 Oystercatcher counted, here and there, probably lots more.
Lesser Black Black-backed Gull, Possible Herring Gull.
At least 3 Black Headed Gull.
Curlew, Lapwing, c30 Greylag Geese.
A few Canada Geese seen.
2 Redshank, 4 Linnet, Meadow Pipit, 3 Stock Dove.
Moorhen, Mallard, Heron.
2 Snipe.

The 4 poor pictures below are of the Tern:-

The first pic. is 'Tern like'

The others 'BHG like'

Decided this bird is a BHG - wings all wrong for Tern!!

The calls however were Tern.

1 of 4 flighty Linnet

A few Snipe Photos:-