A very dark grey afternoon with just hints of the sun breaking through and a strong W>6 at Fly Flatts.
1445 hrs and first stop was the Raggalds Flood where a pair of Wigeon were squat down in the grass at the southern end by the outlet along with 15 Lapwing and 6 BH gulls.
On then to Mixenden reservoir which held around 20 small gulls, 16 Canada Geese and a pair of Mallard.
Fly Flatts didnt want to play at all today in the blasting W>6 with drizzle and a walk to the far NW corner produced 6 BH gulls, 3 LBB gulls, 1 Kestrel and a distant pair of Stonechat.
So thats October gone and another vis mig season drawing close to an end and into November which means reservoir watching for winter wildfowl and of course November can be a good month for Black Redstarts, plus winter Buntings and Larks.
October for me has been a long hard slog with near daily visits to Fly Flatts mostly in atrocious conditions with more than our share of strong winds and horizontal drizzle but asked, was it all worth it, I.ll say it was, with ample rewards from a location just 20 minutes away from home. The October Fly Flatts highlights being :-
A flock of 25 Reed Bunting
A flock of 11 Stonechat
Whooper Swans over in the fog , approx 6 >S or >SW
Several skeins of Pink Footed Geese
Several moving Buzzards
2 Great Black Backed gulls
1 late Swallow
3 late Wheatear
1 Caspian Gull
1 Great White Egret
4 Wigeon
1 probable Snow Bunting, not recorded
2 pr Ring Ouzel
38 Siskin over >NE in 3 groups.
3 female Goldeneye
plus all usual sp.
On the down side the Twite feeding station once again failed with Nyjer seed down constantly from early spring to present date with not a single bird recorded. This is the 4th year running now for the station to be without Twite and its now looking as though we have lost this species from Fly Flatts other than the occasional passage birds.
Having said that, I,ll continue topping the station up with Nyger come the spring, I don,t give up that easily and theres plenty other birds enjoy the free food as well as it keeps the staff at Wilkinsons in a job.
BS