30th January

 LBBG over Pellon.

Not much doing so had another go at The BHGs at Mount Tabor today.

28th January

Took a break from typing in peoples records into the computer and had a go at some Common Gulls at Mount Tabor. With snow on the ground they seem more inclined to come to bread. Also had an Herring Gull go west.

22nd January

15 Great black backs and 20 Herring Gulls over Pellon - Mount Tabor this PM. Went to Luddenden Dean the DJS later on to search for the Northern Long-tailed Tits but just missed them, other birds of note were 1 Common Buzzard, 1 Kestrel, 1 Great Spot Wood, 1 Treecreeper, 1 Siskin in with 10+ Redpolls and c 200 Chaffinch going to roost at Castle Carr.

3rd Time Lucky

 Good comparison between both races.

At last Northern Long-tailed Tits.
Walked all the way from home up to the top of Luddenden Dean in merky horrible conditions in the hope of seeing the northern long tails. On arriving I met Rochdale birder Allan Nuthall for the first time and we had a good chat about local birding. We had only been stood there about 10 minutes when the tit flock arrived. All the long tails were of the British race, but then out of the merk appeared a fantastic white headed NORTHERN (Allan missed it). No worries though as the owners kindly let us in thier house to view these little balls of fluff feeding in thier garden. The dark merky conditions were not ideal for photographs so I had to make a few adjustments to the camera before shooting, also taking pictures through a glass window is not ideal so Ive had to use the adobe photo shop to sharpen a few up. Allan kindly gave me a lift to Mount Tabor where the Golden Plover flock is now up to 71.

17th Jan Golden Plovers and gulls

Usual walk this PM produced a flock of 69 Golden Plovers at Heath Hill Road, also about 20 Fieldfares and 11 Common Gulls present. Still plenty of BHGs at High Road Well Moor, not much else.

15th January

Walk over Roils Head and High Road Well Moor produced 61 Golden Plovers, 18 Lapwing, c20 Fieldfares, 1 Skylark, 6 Common Gulls and 80+ BHGs.

14th January

Went looking for the Northern Long Tails again without any luck. Did have around 200 Pink Feet flying west over Luddenden Dean.

Friday 13th

Had a walk up to Mixenden Reservoir this PM to see Daves Whooper Swans but unfortunatly they had departed. 3 Goosanders and 1 Grey Wagtail was all to be had.

12th January

Went looking for the reported Northern Long-tailed Tits at Luddenden Dean today with Jeff and Andy but no luck. We did have a couple of Ravens fly over calling+ 2 Nuthatch, 1 Great Spot and lots of blue great and coal tits but not 1 long-tail.

9th January, more gulls

 A rather scrotty looking Common Gull (scrotty just invented this new word).

 BHG

 Herring Gulls passing over Mount Tabor.

At last a bit of movement over Mount Tabor. 45 Common Gulls appeared at Heath Hill Road today and the regular BHGs were still ravenous at High Road Well Moor. Better however were 27 Herring Gulls moving west in poor light. I do like gulls, but not as much as raptors so was happy to see my first Sparrowhawk of the year terrorising the local starling flock. A kestrel was sheltering from the rain at Roils Head and the Lapwing flock now numbers 37 at High Road Well Moor.

5th January

 Black-head Gulls at Mount Tabor today.

 Camera Panasonic Lumix fz18

 Shutter speed 500/sec   ISO 100    8 mega pixels

I was going to do an indepth review of all last years birds but just got fed up with where to start so I went photographing BHGs instead. In brief though 2011 had its highs and lows, the worst of the lows being a mega dip on the White-throated Robin at Teeside in June and being denighed the chance to see Bee Eaters in Calderdale in the spring. The best bird of the year for me has to be the Rough-legged Buzzard at Buckstones Moss in November which was my first Calderdale tick for a number of years. Other highlights in Calderdale was the superb spring wader passage at Fly Flats in May and DJPs stunning looking summer plumage Great Northern Diver at Ringstone in October. Elsewhere the Red Kites at Weardly were a real treat in April and the Med Gulls showed really well at Holbeck in October.