At 1445 hrs when the running about was done I arrived at Ogden just in time to see dark black clouds over the wind turbines heading my way.
It was amazing to watch the weather change so quickly as the wind increased to near gale NW>6 gusting 7 bringing the rain which within a few minutes was lashing down torrentially making it so that you could not see across the car park. After sitting it out in the car ten minutes the rain eased slightly so I set off walking to the reservoir but a second wave came over even worse than the first.
I stood behind the info centre watching the hail, sleet and snow blowing horizontally across the water which was barely visible through what now looked like hurricane conditions. Another 15 minutes wasted and daylight going the rain eased slightly just enough to scan the duck feeding area which was absent of bird life and who could blame them.
As the next wave of the storm came over ,and although I class myself as a hardy birder , enough was enough and time to get out of there.
On the way back, as usual, it was brightening up but the light was well on its way by now so a check on Raggalds Flood to find the Teal moved on and scanning the Pit Lane football pitch, 127 Lapwing, around 50 small gulls and around 100 Starling were present but no Goldies as yet.
BS