Soil Hill (a.m.) - Bradshaw / Holdsworth (p.m.)

Soil Hill etc.

9:30 - 11:00.

I thought I'd have a try for a Snow Bunt.
A real ear-lug stinger on Soil Hill this morning, very cold with gale force winds.
Not much about up here at all really.
3 Meadow Pipit (2 heard, 1 seen) on the way up Taylor Lane.
The near resident Common Gull was on the covered reservoir field.

A couple of hardy Meadow Pipits still hanging in there, on Soil Hill.


A few Gulls on the lower Shay Fields.

The lower Soil Hill 'improvements' continue apace with reeds and bog fast disappearing, as I looked across the diggers, to Kelham.

Some good juice in the Raggalds Flood bodes well for the future, but for today just 9 small Gulls.

The Taylor Lane Little Owl was playing hide and seek and had moved to shelter.
I picked it out looking west from the Bonnet - on the way home.(I was looking West - The Owl wasn't).

Bradshaw/ Holdsworth.

13:15 - 15:45.

I tried birding a bit lower down this afternoon but the wind was still very strong.

I walked down to Holdsworth via Bradshaw Park and St, John's Farm and back via The Calderdale way.
Not a lot about.

Bradshaw Park:

3 Moorhen by the pond.

5 Goldfinch going  ,11 Goldfinch on my return.

St. John's Farm fields:

A few small Gulls - mainly Common Gulls.
3 Herring Gull.

Holdsworth Area:

5 Mistle Thrush and 1 Fieldfare,  Jay, Heron.

The Bradshaw fields seem to do well for Mistle Thrush.


A nice bonus of a single Fieldfare, landing high in a tree as I went through the park.
It did not stay though.

An enjoyable outing.


Soil Hill:

The Soil Hill 'Wheat Fields'

Bradshaw / Holdsworth:

Ogden to Bradshaw

13:45 - 15:30

The usual walk this aft.
The high winds of this morning had abated quite a bit, but it was still toooo windy.
I got lucky with the rain, missing most of it.

Birds:

A disappointing circuit of Ogden where there were c75 Gulls on the deck and 20 or so circling around.
A few Mallard about.
A few small birds were heard on the circuit, but jiust a small flock of c10 Long Tailed Tit were eyeballed.

A 2nd Winter Herring Gull looked in a bad way with a broken foot/leg.

4 Goldfinch were swaying in the top of a conifer as I approached East View Farm on the Bradshaw farm track.
A long stand about, eventually resulted in a Little Owl sighting, which brightened the outing somewhat.

Just a Collard Dove, Woodpigeon and a few Corvids seen on the way home.

Talking of long stands...

A Friend of mine started as an apprentice in a Halifax Engineering Company (remember those) - in the early 60's.
He was told by the 'old hand' who was teaching him, to go to stores and ask for a long stand.
The  long stand would make it easier for him to finish the job they were on.

At the Stores, the storeman told him to "stand there, I 'll go get it".

After 30 mins the storeman returned and told him to "go away - you've stood long enough!"

Probably a Chaffinch.

It didn't stay long!

Bradshaw Farm Tack

A really poor photo - but you can't beat 'em

Leeshaw Reservoir - Oxenhope

I had an hour at Leeshaw Reservoir (where there are ZERO shops) , late morning, today, to beat the really nasty weather forecast for this afternoon.

It was a mild outing with a few light showers and a bit breezy, not bad at all for Leeshaw.

A Kestrel was on the telephone lines as I went along the narrow tarmac lane towards the Reservoir.
I stopped the car and took some photos of the bird through the car windscreen.
I didn't notice a car coming towards me (he must have wondered what I was up to - stopped in the middle of the road).
I reversed back to a passing place and got a wave, so all was well.

10 or more mature hikers, who were going up the lane towards the farm, stopped to ask me what I was looking at.
There was a Little Owl here - distant on a wall.
Most of the hikers had never seen a Little Owl, which I thought was a tad sad.
A Red Grouse called from near here also.

The water had 6 Cormorant and about 90 Gulls at one point.
I could not pick out anything special among the Gulls.

A Stoat ran along the path, but soon disappeared into the grass.

A hardy Meadow Pipit, called and landed nearby in the grass.

A Pheasant and the usual Jackdaws were with a Woodpigeon in the fields.

No Geese seen.
Poor light, again, for photos.

Nothing special today, but still great to get out and about.

Ilkley

We enjoyed a run out to Ilkley today.
3 degrees when we left home with bright sunshine.
It was sunny at Ilkley for a good while before clouding over.

I had a try for the Ilkley Cemetery Hawfinch first off.
Another birder from Addingham was there on the same hunt - neither of us had any luck.

2 chance meetings with people, hereabouts, revealed that they had both had Hawfinch on their garden feeders within the last 2 weeks.

A walk around the cemetery and along the river was quite rewarding however.

Birds:-

A Buzzard was perched near the bypass as we headed towards Addingham in the car.

4 Red Kite over the cemetery.
2 Jay, Long Tailed Tit.
2 Dipper, Kingfisher, 2 Heron, Goldcrest.
3 Treecreeper, Nuthatch.
Goosander, Song Thrush.
1 Herring Gull flying with the Black Headed Gull.
Bullfinch, Mistle Thrush, Kestrel, Raven.
And a few other sp.

Another twitch dip but a good day out.

Lots of small flies by the water treatment works.

A bunch of flies

Help For Heroes

Not a lot of birding this week-end.
We took Emma and Abigail to the "Brighouse Christmas Road Party" yesterday.
Abigail and Sue managed to get a ride in the Carriage before Santa came along to nab it.

We enjoyed a trip to Ripley, Harrogate today, where there was a massive marquee and Christmas Fair.
It was jam packed with folk, but the parking organisation was excellent.

Sue managed to get a few Christmas gifts and I manged to see a Song Thrush in the Church grounds and a Red Kite hunting in the drizzle (on the way home).

On a different note:-

Sue has received an acknowledgement from Help for Heroes for her hard work during the last two months knitting Poppies to raise money for them.

Sue has managed to raise £539.10.

Thanks go to:-

My  friend - Helen at the Clean World Dry Cleaners at Greetland.

Chris next door.

Whitehill Dental Practice.

Frankie's Hairdresser - King's Cross

Chloe's Crusty Café - Barnsley.

Kustom Carpets - Barnsley.

White Windows.

Tracey at Ripponden Primary School.

Ing Royd - Ken's place.

Ruth and Rosie.

and many others...

Thanks for you kind help and contributions

Sue.

Another Venue and lots more Brambling

11:00 - 13:00(ish).

The weather here in Bradshaw was half decent this morning, milder and dryer than yesterday and not toooo gloomy.
So... I thought it would be even brighter in Coley … wrong - It was very misty and dull.

I walked down past Coley Church to Priestley Green and along to Lightcliffe.
After a butty stop at the café in Lightcliffe I continued on down Coach Road Bridleway to the bottom and turned left along Catherine Slack to Sefton Avenue, before retracing my steps.

Birds:-

It was very dark again making the normally dark tree tops here a tad worse.

Coley / Priestley Green Area:

Goldfinch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit.
Redwings flying about in twos and threes, possibly 40 or so seen, although there were probably a lot more.
Not many Fieldfare picked out though, maybe 20 or so.

c90 Small Gulls in the fields 50/50 split between Common and Black Headed.

Pr Jay, Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Coach Road Area:

4 Mistle Thrush.
3 Bullfinch seen near the top of the Bridleway on the right.
Then 4 more Bullfinch seen a tad further down the track.
Coal Tit.

The trees opposite Sefton Avenue held c50 Brambling.
They were all flitting about madly, hardly stopping for photos!
Again, they were high in dark trees, awful for photos.

Strange this birding job. 
Last year I dipped on Brambling , this year I've had 2 good flocks in 24 hours.
Might bode well for Waxwing.

On the way back up Coach Road, 3 Nuthatch called then the air was filled with small birds calling.
A large group of small birds were passing through, feeding high up.
6 Nuthatch in all.
3 Treecreeper, Blue, Great, Long Tailed and Coal Tit.


Then … silence.. as they moved away.

Also about, Wren, Kestrel, Pied Wagtail and a Goldcrest seen near the Church.

Not a bad day out and about.

Looks like it will be early next week before this murk goes away.

Mega distant Great Spotted Woodpecker

Brambling flitting about in the tree tops