but no Goldies
1430 hrs- 1330 hrs Pit Lane and Soil Hill.
Noting a busy football pitch on Pit Lane whilst heading for Soil Hill I did a quick detour to check for Golden Plover amongst the gulls and Lapwings . No Goldies present but a good count of 87 Lapwing building nicely along with 52 Common gull ,
11 Black Headed and c 100 Starling.
Soil Hill was grey with a cool NW>5 and very wet underfoot with some areas flooded after thawing snow and heavy overnight rain. Despite this it was a lively hour up there with 2 Common Snipe present as well as the long staying Jack Snipe which again avoided the camera by flushing in a different area than usual.
A pair of Mallard came up from one of the scrapes circling round before landing again across on the west summit where 6 Meadow Pipits were moving around.
The highlight of the visit was 2 Skylark on the east summit which was a pleasant surprise, these being the first autumn birds I,ve had this year with this species being absent since the summer and it was looking as if it was to be the first time Skylark had not over wintered on the hill.
BS