Oxenhope

Greylag geese, Leeshaw Reservoir 

The day started with a big, burly first-Winter yellow-legged gull amongst the morning throng on the school playing field. The peculiar combination of brown upperparts and white head and breast jumped out amongst the other gulls, I had to look twice to make sure it wasn't a great black-back which would be only the second I've seen here. (It was big but not that big.) The buggers never turn up outside school hours so I can get a photo of them.

I'd decided to head over to Yorkshire to see the red-necked grebe at Leeshaw Reservoir just outside Oxenhope. I'd been spoiled rotten with last year's bird near Scarborough, I didn't imagine I'd get that close a view this time but it would be nice to see one again.

River Calder, Hebden Bridge 

It had been a cloudy but dry day at home, it was raining in Yorkshire, that thin stuff that kids you into thinking you can leave your raincoat behind when you look out of the window. I had forty minutes to wait at Hebden Bridge for the B3 Brontë Bus. I spent the time getting a cup of tea and watching the jackdaws chi-ack a pair of buzzards floating over the station then had a mooch around the river and canal, the mallards preferring the river and the Canada geese the canal.

We had to stop for roadworks at Bedlam Slack 

We passed the rain belt as we went over the tops out of Hebden Bridge and left the jackdaws behind. The scenery was splendid and worth the trip out on its own. The clouds gathered as the bus came down towards Oxenhope and raindrops started spattering the window.

The plan had been to take the bus to the stop on Marsh Lane and walk the mile or so to the reservoir. Unfortunately the bus was diverted due to roadworks and couldn't get any closer than the stop near the station. Which wasn't a great hardship, just adding half a mile to the walk though I could have done without the last uphill stretch to Marsh Lane with a strong breeze blowing rain in my ear.

Marsh Lane

Looking back towards Oxenhope 

That strong breeze was in my face all the way to the reservoir. Every so often the thick drizzle would become a heavy shower of horizontal rain. I wondered why I do this but was very much enjoying the scenery. Robins and great tits sang, goldfinches twittered and jackdaws noisily bounced about the fields.

The field beyond the trees on Oxenhope Common held a couple of hundred black-headed gulls together with a dozen or so herring gulls, a similar number of greylags and a few mallards. Further along a flock of curlews called loudly as the wind blew them over the slopes.

I'd seen the reservoir from the bus as we approached Oxenhope. I couldn't see it from the road and I couldn't find a way onto the maintenance road running by the reservoir that didn't have a locked gate in the way. There have been some good photos of the grebe posted on social media so there must be in a way in I couldn't find. 

Leeshaw Reservoir 

I retraced my steps and followed a footpath up the hill by the corner of the road that gave me an overview of the reservoir. The light was tricky: the wind was scudding the clouds past and at any moment the light could be bright or dark, flat or high contrast. The raft of herring gulls, lesser black-backs and black-headed gulls merged in and out with the greys of the very choppy water as the light changed.

I was having no luck finding a grebe of any sort. Then I saw a greylag sitting on its own on the water. If I could have missed a greylag that long I could have missed a grebe so I set about scanning the reservoir again. All the time I was searching there was a background cacophony from a mixed flock of Canada geese and greylags on the field on the far side of the reservoir and a dozen oystercatchers getting giddy in the wind on the waterside.

Ironically, it was when I lowered my binoculars to give my arms a rest I spotted the grebe. The light caught it as it rode the crest of a wave. I lost it as I put the bins to my eyes but I knew roughly where to look and picked it up a minute or two later. It wasn't the best of views, distant and backlit, but the solid-looking grey neck ruled out great crested grebe and confirmed I had the red-necked grebe in my sights. I lingered a bit in the rain in the hopes of getting a better view but it wasn't happening.

As I started back down the path a flock of greylags rose from the field by the reservoir and headed over to the common.

Walking back to Marsh Lane

I checked the times, I was okay for the bus back to Hebden Bridge. As I walked back the rain stopped and the sun threatened to come out a few times. Noisy gangs of rooks joined the jackdaws and greenfinches joined the goldfinches. The walking was considerably easier with a strong, warm breeze on my back.

Sparrowhawk, Oxenhope Millennial Green

I got into Oxenhope with quarter of an hour to spare for the bus so I had a quick look at the Millennial Green by the road that had been closed. There had been plenty of robins, blue tits, great tits and sparrows in the gardens I'd walked past so I was surprised there weren't any birds in the trees by the stream. Then I saw the sparrowhawk having a bath. It spotted me and flew up onto a branch so it could give me a hard glare.

The scenery on the bus ride back was just as splendid and crowds of rooks joined the jackdaws in the fields as we came back down towards Hebden Bridge.

I'd had pretty much my worst view of a red-necked grebe but I'd seen it, I'd had an inexpensive day out in Pennine scenery and had had a bit of exercise so I wasn't complaining.