Mixenden Reservoir

It's always worth a check at local reservoirs at any time of the year. Winter can be pretty grim at times but there is always a chance of something turning up especially in inclement weather. This morning was no exception with mist on the tops and a very cold damp south easterly.

I went to the usual watch-point. Plenty Black-headed Gulls 60+ with a few Common Gulls and 16+ Herring Gulls including noisy adults. Gulls staying to bathe and preen with plenty of coming and going.

Scanning the waters edge on the west side was a Shelduck then later preening on the embankment where it seemed to stay most of the day with updates from NK and JJL. An annual but reasonably scarce bird in Calderdale.

Great Black-backed Gulls occasionally pass through in the winter months. Today was no exception as an adult arrived, a brutish looking bird but always great to see. Best I could do with the camera was a distant shot across to the other side of the reservoir.

Size difference with an adult Herring Gull showing to its left

Mixenden Reservoir has been pretty poor in recent years but from 2010 when an adult Little Gull turned up on 9th November the site has always been worth a check. Some special birds have been seen there with, what seems a lull since 'lockdown'.!! Up to that time some of the 'specials' recorded there have included Iceland Gulls, Mediterranean Gull, Smew, Gadwall, Great Northern Diver, Common Scoter, Avocet, Dunlin, Osprey and Whooper Swans (those are the ones off the top of my head). oh and a Black Swan that probably escaped from captivity.

Cold Edge

Grey Heron 2 adults. Both birds have some grey at bill tip and base - more on the right bird.

Moorhen with Mallards

Rochdale Canal.

Took a walk along the canal from Luddenden Foot towards Brearley this afternoon.

14 Siskin were feeding high up in canal-side alders along with a Buzzard over. Not a lot else other than 2 Dippers close together from the bridge over the Calder at Luddenden Foot.

One red-head Goosander, 2 Cormorants and plenty of Mallard about along the canal and on the lagoon at Brearley.

86 Canada Geese and a single, very noisy, unringed Barnacle Goose in the fields.

Cold Edge

Stonechat male

3 of 4 Stock Doves

Pair of Rooks touching bills

The 1941 Witherby handbook says that the male presenting food to the female is a common feature of Rook display. Also, fondling of bills is often observed in mated birds.

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