Scar House Reservoir.. a return to old haunts 19-09-2009

0710-11:30 AMH, RB
Wind light and variable, poor vis till about 0900 then some sunny spells.

Forgot what a lovely place this is- and was duly reminded. peaceful with no car sounds audible at all for the first hour and the low cloud drifting against Little Whernside adding to the atmosphere- in this case actually as well as figuratively.

Sadly the SW winds shown on several forecasts failed to appear in a timely fashion- but, despite this there was enough to keep the interest up, with 4 male Ring Ouzels in a flock of 44 Mistle Thrushes 'U-turning' at the Dam a highlight. This valley runs NE to SW with the trees ending at the Dam to the N. In these conditions a lot of birds 'bottle out' and 'U-turn'.

Meadow Pipit- movement a mix of SW through to SE but S being the common denominator: 170

Song Thrush ( first time in the book this autumn): 6W
Mistle Thrush 4SW and 44 U turned
Ring Ouzel 4 U turned plus 2 on Crags
Chaffinch 15W
Goldfinch 64SW
Alba Wag 12 S and permutations of S plus 1 about
Grey Wag 3S
Collared Dove 2SW
Linnet 8SW
Jackdaw 6- one flock U turned
Stack Dove 5- 1 flock u- turned
Blue Tit 5SW
Coal Tit 1SW
Siskin 3SW
Sparrow hawk 1SW, 1 about
Swallow c45- with at least 15W
Hmartin 8S
Cormorant 4 SW
Red Kite 1SW
Buzzard 1 about
Goldcrest 1 SW

Andy Hanby