On the night of the 17th at around 16:30, the news came through from PD and LD that there was a Great Northern Diver on Ringstone. A brilliant find, and an excellent bonus bird for my yearlist that I had not taken into consideration. The problem? The light was already fading fast and I would have to navigate Halifax at the end of the afternoon to make it. Best decided to leave it until the morning, it was a Diver after all so not likely to be going anywhere.
But the morning came and no news came with it. After an hour
of daylight I decided I had waited long enough. The weather was too poor to
work Soil Hill, so I may as well head up and check for myself. Once I reached
Ringstone the strong breeze made checking difficult, but after around 10
minutes I managed to pick up the diver at the far end of the reservoir! Result.
Sadly it spent the best part of the next few hours not
cooperating. It would disappear for long periods, at one point convincing me
that it had in fact gone. But then on other occasions it would show very close
to the wall, offering great photo opportunities, and at one point even gave an
extended flyby. It stayed the rest of the day, but had moved on by the
following morning.
It was nice to bump into PD, AT and DF all up twitching the
bird, a brilliant bird for Halifax, my fourth in the Calderdale recording area.
Ringstone Edge: Mallard, Great Crested Grebe, Northern Lapwing, Black-headed Gull, Common Gull, Great Northern Diver, Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Eurasian Magpie, Rook, Carrion Crow, Eurasian Wren, Common Starling, Redwing, Fieldfare, European Robin, European Goldfinch,
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