Must be Mad

   I went for a venture up Ringby lane in the afternoon,
   cold windy and the weather couldn't make its mind up
   what to do , also not much to see so my hopes of
   Snow Bunting were dashed, 3 Meadow Pipits,
   4 Stock Dove, lots of crows and a poss Raven.
   Next stop was Soil Hill and same again not a lot
   to see poss Sparrowhawk or Peregrine flew past

   at a distance, 3 Roe Deer were seen on my way to
   Soil Hill and a Little John was seen lol, not seen him
   for ages

   We both decided we must be mad out birding in this
    weather.

 

Long Eared Owl - Halifax

 Took a trip out Thursday evening to various places
 looking for some Barn Owls and had no joy, but I
 did come across a beauty after a heads up from DS.
 A Long Eared Owl posing like a Prima Donna on a
 fence post, she also flew just in front of me half an
 hour later, I was well chuffed and it made the venture
 out well worthwhile, a few skylark were seen and a
 largish Blackbird with white chest flew 50 yards in
 front of me, all I could think of was Ring Ouzel but
 it was so dark it could of been anything.

 Garden was busy with Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Goldfinch
 and Greenfinch, Dunnocks and Robins and lots of gulls
 over back field.

Firecrest at Rodley

 First time out for a few months what with injuries and other things
 going on but decided on a trip to Rodley Nature Reserve hoping to see
 the Firecrest that had been seen a few weeks ago as Ive only ever seen
 one and that was while I was on my postal round, and the Black Swan.

 Got out of the car and lo and behold within 5 minutes there was the
 Firecrest right in front of me, camera not prepared and on wrong settings
 and lighting was appalling but it was still great to see it so close and
 then as I looked above the Black Swan was swanning off to pastures new.
 so it was quite fruitful in the first half hour, the Firecrest showed up 3
 more times but always while I was alone, when the crowds showed up
 it seemed to disappear.

 Treecreeper, Wren, Little Grebe, Goldcrest, LTT, Gadwall, Moorhen,
  Blue & Great Tit, Coot, Cormorant, Pink-Footed, Greylag, and Canada
 Geese, Fieldfare, Mistle Thrush, Redwing were at a distance, Robin,
  Dunnock, Blackbird, Tufted Duck, Teal, Grey Heron, Greenfinch,
 Bullfinch, Dunnock and Reed Bunting were seen by me but I missed
 out on the Barn Owl that was seen earlier in the morning.

  Cromwell Bottom was very quiet with only the usual birds being seen
  though Mike H had seen some Siskin and a couple of Goldcrest all I got
  were 6 Goldfinch up on the meadow but was nice bumping into him, also
  nice to bump into Chris T, Peter H, Jan and Paul up at Rodley.

  

Swalesmoor & Shibden Valley

    SWALESMOOR.
    Decided to stay local during the last couple of days
    and took a walk around Swalesmoor and Shibden
    Valley, my first encounter were 8 House Sparrows
    which was nice as not seen many about recently this
    was at the bottom of Ringby lane where there was also
    a Chaffinch and a coal Tit nr the feeders, further up the
    hill were lots of Meadow  Pipits and a bird with them
    that was a bit lighter and had a shorter bill, it may have
    been a Juvenile or maybe not.
   
    First half hour was great but the next hour there was
    apart from 2 Pied Wagtail in the roadside fields,
    Had Lane was quiet apart from watching an aerial
    duel between a Crow and a Kestrel which was enjoyable
    to watch with the Kes making the better moves, further
    on the path I had a quick chat with a metal detector, he
    was a nice fella and said he'd found 2 Georgian coins
    after that I set off home.

   SHIBDEN VALLEY.
   Started off so quiet on a dull and and bad light day so
   to veer off the path and up towards the woods where
   Long Tailed Tit, Robin, Blue Tits, and Willow Warbler
   were seen, also a Heron which surprised me and the
   highlight of the day was a Red Kite flying over but
   didn't report it as I'd left my phone at home that's 2
   Kites Ive seen local in the last couple of weeks.