Ogden

Bitterly cold and windy, a long walk to the wind farm over the moor......the highlight was a pair of Raven displaying over the moor for about half an hour , 2 Mipits  , 8 red  Grouse , 3 Reed Buntings and a Kestrel was the sum total...At home 7 Reed Buntings and 2 tree Sparrows....

Local 2

Started off with 4  Tree , 3 Hedge and 15 House Sparrows in and around the garden..A cracking male Sparrowhawk had everything up in the air as it shot through and in to the field. A flock of passerines in the field were easily spooked. ...25 Mipits , 5 Reed Bunting , 1 Song Thrush and a Chaffinch.... that is good for here..little else in the next 45 mins but well chuffed...

Local.........................

Headed up Soil Hill in the hope of a Snow Bunting but alas 2 Carrion Crow and a Red Grouse were the only birds up there.
  11 Herald and 3 Peacock Butterflies in Bare Head Tunnel ,,,in the trailer Park field 1 Snipe, 1 Grey Heron and a Wren,,,,,3 tree Sparrows again today at Northowram...

A bit of luck

I have only found one species of micro moth in Cumbria so far  the  species was  on Hart's Tongue Fern and turned out to be ..BF 200... Psychoides filicivora... it is a first for VC 70(most of Cumbria,) and only the 7th record for Cumbria....

Shibden

A quick look today produced, 2 Grey Heron ,  4 Mute Swan, 20 Canadas , 1 Greylag and 6 each of moorhen and Coot

3 Sparrows

I remember as a lad in Brighouse, I often saw House , Tree and Hedge Sparrows in the back garden  and as I remember it was one of the first  problems with ID that I sorted out....today I was lucky to see all 3 again after a gap of some 40 years..15 House Sparrows , 4 Tree Sparrows and 2 Hedge Sparrows ...another red letter day.......

Roa Island ,

 In the eye of the storm on Wednesday, I managed to get to |Roa island causeway , half way across is a small car park I decided this was a good place .Gale force winds battered the headland, but with this were birds lots of them...Hundreds of Curlew and Oystercatcher headed in land, and at least 4000 Knot could be seen twisting and turning off  Walney island, small flocks of Widgeon 30, 40 and 50;s
flying past the car over the causeway and then inland. Next 145 Pale bellied Brent geese landed in the sea in front of the car , rapidly feeding in and around the seaweed, waders were covering the foreshore as the tide came in, 1 Grey Plover 100 + Turnstone, 300 +|Sanderling, 40 Golden Plover, 10 Lapwing , another flock flew in, at least 30 Ringed Plover  and 20 Dunlin joining the now masses of waders.
   More Curlew , Widgeon , 200 + Shelduck were seen to pass by  and 3 Bar tailed Godwit landed on the beach. Out at sea I could just make out some duck in the  masses of  crashing waves ....Eider.... yes masses of them a quick count was inexcess of 500 +...Redshank starting come through and more and more Curlew and Oystercatchers. I picked up 3 small passerines being blown towards the car, 2 were Skylarks and the other landed under the car........a large pipit for sure..I had seen on birdguides that a Water Pipit had been seen in this general area and after a  short time the pipit showed its self to be this species.4 little Egrets , 2 Ravens and a peregrine were seen briefly.
  At this point I started to head back along the coast road and noticed the fields were full of Curlew and Oystercatcher in one field alone I counted 400 curlew and 150 Oycks, A last look at the sea produced the birds of the day 2 Pomerine Skuas about 100m from the road at one point I thought they were going inland but headed north along the coast, the first one still had very tatty spoons. Winter   birding at its very best                            ...............Happy xmas EVERYONE
..

Maryport

Been in the Maryport / Carlisle area this week ,  its a large area of farmland with many fields left for stubble. A flock of 50 Skylark , 5 Yellowhammer , 2 Reed Buntings , 20 Chaffinch and the odd tree Sparrow was the pick of the farmland species. At least 5 different Med Gulls and the bird of the week was a winter plumage Ruff foraging with Starlings in a recently manured field. Small numbers of Pinkfeet and Whoopers also about.