BTO Atlas

The BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) are running a 5 year project to map all Britain's birds. The project started in 2007 and finishes next year. Volunteers have been carrying out field work in summer and winter in 2 Km squares (tetrads) all over the country, counting and recording all the birds. I have a final 3 squares which have been allocated to me, 2 of which are in Elland and the other is in Warland. I completed the Elland ones earlier in the week and I visited the Warland site this morning for 2 hours. Visibility varied from about 50 yards to over a mile.

Once I got out of the valley and looked back down, the clouds had settled into the valley floor, but this didn't last long as they soon came back over the hills and closed down visibilty again.

Warland reservoir was still frozen -

The clouds came rolling in and seemed to be tumbling onto the frozen water

Nothing special from a birding perspective, but a couple of Red Grouse were a nice sound to hear in the peace and quiet of the chilly and misty moors.

Shaw Wood

Walked past Lee Dam, down to the canal tow path and up through Shaw Wood this afternoon. Nothing at Lee Dam as the water is still frozen, and not much in the valley either apart form a Grey Heron over the river, but when I got to Shaw Wood the place seemed to be alive with birds all over the place. They were obviously enjoying the relative warmth of 0 to 1 degree temperatures!

A Treecreeper was flitting about in Shaw Wood and towards the top of the wood there were 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers and about 20 Long Tailed Tits together with Blue, Great and Coal so I checked for Nuthatch as they usually accompany flocks of Tits, and sure enough there was one as I hoped. A Little Owl flew up from the ground and landed on a low branch at the edge of the wood and perched there for a few minutes so I had good a good view until it flew off over the fields.

Fieldfare and Rook

The Fieldfare was back in the garden eating apples this morning.

For the first time in years we had a Rook in the back field.

River Calder and Eastwood WTW

Had a walk into Hebden Bridge this morning and the River Calder was frozen over in places. Where the river was still open and running OK there was a flock of about 16 Redwing on the bank of the river looking for food and bathing.

A Grey Heron was in the river, also looking for a meal.

At Eastwood Water Teatment Works there were about 12 Meadow Pipits on the iced up settling beds

A Grey Wagtail and 2 PiedWagtails were with them.

Lumbutts

Very cold again, -12 overnight, but a lovely day for a walk. Here's a view over Lumbutts showing our 3 local major landmarks - from the right we have Lumbutts Water Tower, Stoodley Pike and The Top Brink Inn.

River Calder

Walked down to the River Calder this morning and found that it was freezing over in some places...

A female Goosander was swimming up river where the ice hadn't formed.

Also on the river were 26 Mallards, a Grey Heron and a Moorhen. Up in Stoodley Clough: 2 Jays, 7 Long Tailed Tits and a Treecreeper.

Although the snow and ice enables everyone to take lots of nice photos, and if it persists through Christmas it will look very festive, it isn't helping the wildlife at all. Birds and animals will be struggling to find food so we should all help as much as we can - but also keep a look out for species you wouldn't normally expect to see. Woodcock for example were seen regularly in daytime through the last cold spell we had.

Lee Dam and Rochdale Canal

Lee Dam was still 60% frozen over this morning but there were 3 pairs of Goosander there. The freezing temperatures we're due to have over the next week won't help either. Not much other bird life to be seen until the Rochdale Canal and River Calder, where a Kingfisher and a Grey Wagtail were seen.

The snow arrived later in the morning as promised and the temperature dropped from 6 degrees to -1 in about 2 hours. By the time the sun was setting the snow had stopped and made the hills and Stoodley Pike very picturesque.

Hardcastle Crags and Crimsworth Dean

We took a walk up through Hardcastle Cargs and over to Crimsworth Dean then back into Midgehole this morning. It was perfect walking weather and apart from a very slight shower it stayed dry throughout. Allan and Chris were on fine form.

There was still a bit of snow in sheltered places where the sun hadn't penetrated...

Coming down Crimsworth the sunlight was just breaking through the clouds, giving a fine view to Hebden and Heptonstall:

In the Crags we saw 2 Treecreepers, 2 Dippers and a Grey Heron but little else of note. Gibson Mill pond was still frozen.