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Sunday, February 8, 2015

Soil Hill Blackout.

           Glorious blue skies with banks of low cloud
             Ogden and the Calder valley wiped out.

              This massive bank over Fly Flatts had my name on it!
                                   Sun blanked out
                      Creeping across the Shay
                                     Lights out
             Still plenty deep snow drifts.

Spectacular weather front which approached from the NW.
On arrival at Soil Hill at 1445 hrs with some serious sky watching in mind for gulls and geese the conditions were perfect with good visibility in the bright blue sunny sky.
Below in the valleys a large bank of low lying cloud was moving in from the NW blanking out both Calderdale and Airedale and even moving over Bradford and Leeds.
Within 15 minutes a large bank of fog came over the moor from Fly Flatts with West Yorkshire Birding stamped across it and within another few minutes it hit, blanking out the hill and me with it.
With no sky to look at but some visibility on the ground it was down to plan B, Snow Bunt hunt but after a full zig zag search of both summits the only birds found were 2 Carrion Crow, 4 Meadow Pipits and 3 Grey Partridge. Plenty bird tracks in the snow as well as Deer, Rabbit, Fox and Weasel but nothing seen.
BS