After finishing family stuff it was 1500hrs leaving just over 1 hour of daylight or even less in the black cloud conditions so the nearest option was Soil Hill in hope of snapping a flushed Snipe or Jack Snipe, not an easy task and even worse in poor light.
Intermittent blue skies and heavy showers as I arrived with a howling WSW>6 , not the best conditions for trudging the hill.
Surprisingly several Meadow Pipits were present along with 7 Skylark and 6 Mallard whilst 14 LBB gulls battled the winds heading >S.
About one third of the summit trudged and the first Snipe up, a common , but dropped quickly down again over the west slope, result 10 blurred shots.
A bit further on and a second bird up, another common but during a lashing rain shower when the camera was being sheltered in the bag although it too moved so fast skimming the ground before dropping out of site, result, no shots.
The third bird came up during a break in the rain whilst the camera was on at the ready. Another common and again keeping low refusing to break the sky line so the camera was trying to focus on the vegetation in the background, result, 9 good vegetation shots with blurred Snipe in the foreground and one half decent Common Snipe, job done.
No sign of Jack Snipe and by now the wind had increased to a fearsome WSW>7-8 with torrential horizontal rain, time I was,nt here although by now I could,nt get any wetter.
Be interesting to see if the promised storm for tonight and tomorrow drops us any goodies in although for me its down to dinner time birding only during the week until the light nights return.
BS