New Year

Going into 2026, I still think some of the most satisfying birding comes from marking out a patch on a map, and then trying to build a lengthy patch life list.

The patch needs to be not too far from home if you're not a regular driver, and it needs to be big enough to have a few different habitats. Water is a must, (unless you're an early riser who can catch early morning flyovers!).

Advantages of inland birding are that most patch lifers will not be scarce nationally, and most will not be too difficult to identify.

Year after year Nick comments that he does not receive enough records of common birds: for example in 2023 he had just 10 of Blackbird, 7 of Magpie, and 22 of Chaffinch. A regular patch watcher is more likely to record common birds, as well as scarcer ones.

Undisclosed location

Chinese Geese

Wainstalls

2cy (1st winter) Common Gull

Ryburn - 9 January

2cy Cormorant. I was a bit thrown by the whiteness of the underparts, (and by the difficulty seeing the pale bill in this long shot). But the Collins Bird Guide says "1st year birds can look very white beneath".

Ogden etc

This morning around the res'r at Ogden was more about watching the floor rather than the sky ! The ice was still well in evidence around the perimeter footpath and suspected I was on the earlier trail of BS !. 

Best of the small birds was at least 2 very confiding flocks of Long-tailed Tits, maybe around 25 in total.

A Raven went over high,  'cronkin' and a Kingfisher was down in the sluice below the embankment.

10 Tufted Duck were on the water with  a few Black-headed and Common Gulls along with 1 juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gull

Headed off to Booth Wood res'r early afternoon. After a short while searching with JB and BK the Black Redstart showed well feeding along the fissure cracks in the quarry face. A pretty special bird for this time of year. No camera with me. Also 4 Lapwing flyovers and on my way home a single Buzzard went high over the dam wall.

Shibden Valley

Redwing

Mistle Thrush

Shroggs Park - 6th Jan

 Didn't venture far today but I did manage a check of the woodland in Shroggs Park this afternoon.

3 Lesser Redpoll feeding high up in birch and a single Goldcrest skulking around in a  large privet bush were the best of, not  a lot other than a Nuthatch, 5 Redwings, a few Blackbirds and Magpies and c50 Woodpigeons feeding in the oak woodland.

Also a flock of c70 P-f Geese over Halifax / Calder Valley >W around 11:20 (D Br and PD)

7th and 8th January - a Black Redstart, photographed supplied, near Booth Wood  Res'r from (RJ) was a big surprise though there are other January records in Calderdale (must check). 

Still showing well today - 9th January.

Shroggs Park - 3rd Jan

 Birch and Oak hillside opposite B & Q and Shroggs landfill site in the sunshine late morning.

7 Lesser Redpoll feeding in the top of tall birch was a welcome surprise. Elsewhere in the woodland 

5 Siskin, Goldcrest, Treecreeper and a Nuthatch along with 4 sp of 'Tit'. Just the 1 each Mistle Thrush and Redwing along with several Blackbirds.

Nuthatch

Cold Edge - 2nd January

Single Pink-footed Goose still with the geese - 72 Geylags and 70 Canadas this afternoon.

2 Kestrel and 2 very distant Buzzards, 1 x 3rd w Herring Gull and 2 adults but little else of note other than corvids, c20 Starlings, 2 Stock Doves, 1 Collared Dove and a few B h Gulls and Common Gulls. 

Castle Carr Road - 1st January

Bitterly cold wind along the road this afternoon. A pair of Stonechats running the fence line adjacent to the patch of heathland was a welcome sight but one wonders how they manage to survive, and find food in those conditions.

Not  a lot else, but around 15 Meadow Pipits feeding in a patch of long grasses and 2 adult Herring Gulls over >W

Soil Hill

   A couple of visits to Soil Hill to round out 2025 have seen good numbers of snipe on offer. Both yesterday and this morning I flushed a Woodcock, this morning's individual eventually being flushed three times. And there has been an excellent count of six Jack Snipe yesterday, with five again today.

-Jack Snipe

-Woodcock

In total managed 27 species today, the full list here; https://ebird.org/checklist/S291155425