As soon as I parked up I saw a small group of birds heading in my direction from the Raggalds area. A quick dash round to the boot and up with the bins to find Golden Plover so it was grab the camera and fire a few shots as they went over, circling slightly and dropping down below the slope to the NE, not to be re located. This must have been the group I reported yesterday where 11 were in with the Lapwings and 10 in the fly over today, maybe miscounted yesterday in the distance.
That was the good luck, now here's the bad.
Up on the mounds after checking my 2 feeding areas, where 4 Skylarks were feeding, a text came through from Dan Branch via the grapevine reporting a Jack Snipe on Soil Hill so a phone call to him only to find he was only 50 yds away from me on the other side of the hill so I had missed the Jack Snipe by 5 minutes. After DB had headed off I zig zagged the whole of the western summit and the Jack Snipe hot spots but was unable to re located the bird looking as if it had stayed down the bottom of the north slope where Daniel had last seen it heading.
Scanning the bottom of the hill the pond held 3 Mallard and 2 Moorhen whilst a count of 185 Lapwings were present, these were counted later from photos, but none of yesterdays massive Starling flock with just about a dozen present along with 11 Fieldfare.
There were no Goldies in with the Lapwings so the group I saw must have settled in a field between the hill and Perseverance Road.
Other than that it was down to 4 Meadow Pipits but nice to hear one of the Skylarks up singing.
Looks like there has been a wader movement with the Jack Snipe on the hill and a further 2 flushed near Mytholmroyd by PG along with Dunlins and Ringed Plovers turning up around the area.
BS