Ogden in the rain

I had a try for DJS's Mandarin Duck at Ogden this aft.
My first opportunity for a visit since it was first seen, so I did not hold out too much hope.
The car park had deteriorated with large water filled holes all over the shop.

Thoroughly wet and miserable here and not much happening.
A good hunt for the Mandarin failed to locate the bird but it could well be hunkered down out of the rain!

Other birds: c20 Black Headed Gull, 6 Common Gull, 2 Lesser Black-backed Gull at one point, with Gulls coming and going throughtout.
Many Blackbirds here with Coal, Blue and Great Tits.

A solitary Goldcrest brightened things a bit.

The joys of Rail Travel.

A trip to York with Abi on Friday using the excellent Northern Rail rover tickets obtained via 3 Halifax Courier Vouchers.
£10 for an adult and £5 for a child to travel on Northern Rail for the day.
An early start to get everyone organised and we managed to arrive early for the 8:59 Halifax to York train.
A look at the departures board for our train, revealed:-
" This service has been cancelled due to a problem with the train! - UGH.
Sue had the great idea of catching the Leeds train.
Luckily for us the Leeds train had been delayed and one arrived in a few minutes.
In Leeds an 'express train' to York popped up on the departures board, leaving in 10 minutes.
Although this train had a prehistoric look about it, it only stopped once at Church Fenton and we arrived, in York, just 10 minutes later than our original schedule - amazing!