Once again the pattern of sightings favoured the latter half of the year. The New Year saw numbers notably reduced with no double figure counts and, even, a total lack of sightings in February. The 6 seen on a private lake on 11th April were the high count for the first winter period. Whereas the build up at Knotford Nook in November reached a group record of 135! During this period Lindley Wood Reservoir also had a good total of 80 present but it is believed that these would have been birds from Knotford.

Other sites having mainly single figure counts included; Silsden floods, Cold Edge Dams, Chelker Reservoir, Fewston Reservoir, Ogden Water, Stockbridge, Thornton Moor Reservoir, Silsden Reservoir and Redcar Tarn.

Whilst the first returning birds were two at Thornton Moor Reservoir on 5th August, the Otley area dominated the records, with over half the 140 reported sightings coming from Otley Wetland or Knotford Nook. All counts over 50 came from the latter site, and after 28th October. The peak count of 84 on 2nd December was considerably down on last year’s 135 at the same site.

Elsewhere, Cold Edge Dams had 39 fly past on 5th September, and, on 1st October, 23 were seen at Thornton Moor Reservoir during another visible-migration count. Eighteen were seen on 3rd October on Lindley Wood Reservoir, which had its highest count of 48 on 23rd. These might also have been the birds seen at a private site mid-month.

Whilst 40 fewer records were submitted than in 2004, numbers of birds were generally higher, and, in particular, there were more sightings in the early part of the year.

As usual, most of these came from the area round Otley and the Washburn Valley, and Knotford Nook dominated proceedings in January, producing six double-figure counts and a maximum of 80 birds on 15th. Numbers in the following seven months were much reduced, with only one party of more than twenty birds, this being 26 at Otley Wetland on 18th March. Visible-migration from September turned up small numbers of birds at a number of locations, including Cold Edge Dams and Thornton Moor Reservoir, where 25 were seen in October, but that month’s highest count was 40 birds at a private location.

This site again had the same number of birds on two dates in December, and thirty were at Thornton Moor on 15th November. The latter month provided the year’s highest count of 123 at Lindley Wood Reservoir on 5th, having increased to this total from 110 two days earlier.

A good year, with 90 records covering 19 locations, and including 44 double-figure counts.

Most records for the first winter period came from the Otley area, where there were several counts of between 20 and 26 birds, from Knotford Nook, Otley Wetland and a private location, and the highest aggregate for the early part of the year: 52 birds at Lindley Wood Reservoir on 16th February. Elsewhere, 22 birds were seen at Cononley Ings in March.

Sightings petered out by mid-April, but there was a notable summer record of a bird at Otley Wetland on 8th June. Presumed migrants brought the first records of autumn, and these came almost entirely from the south of the area, with double-figure counts in September at the reservoirs at Lower Laithe, Warley Moor and Thornton Moor (which produced the period’s highest number of 22), and Denholme Clough. The main numbers were seen from the end of October, with 50 birds in October and December at Knotford Nook, and up to 54 at the private lake. However, Cononley Ings, included in the Group’s recording area for the first time, produced several counts of up to 38 birds in this period, and a record total of 150 on 3rd December (MSm).

Birds were also seen this year at several sites where they are relatively unusual, namely Tong Park Reservoir, on the Wharfe at Strid Wood, and St. Ives, although the bird seen there was considered an escape.

Whilst there were more records than in 2006, numbers were generally lower, and birds were seen at slightly fewer locations.

Apart from two records from Strid Wood and Cononley Ings, all the reports in the first winter period to the end of March came from the Otley area, where there were maxima of 30 birds at a private site and 38 at Lindley Wood Reservoir, both in March, and 37 at Knotford Nook in February. These may have been the same mobile birds, as could smaller numbers seen at Otley Wetland.

Apart from three records from the same area in April, nothing else was seen until 6th September, when there was a bird at Stockbridge. Unlike the early months, the final third of the year had small numbers of birds, clearly on passage, at 11 locations away from Wharfedale, but the only significant numbers continued to come from there, comprising between 16 and 36 at Otley Wetland, and up to 22 at Knotford.