Another day of winds and drizzle so the late afternoon session at Fly Flatts was approached with a low expectancy. On arrival I was met with a break in the weather and for the first 15 minutes conditions were acceptable with a W>5-6 and light drizzle along with a 80 % cloud cover.
A walk on to the far end of the water was a mistake as whilst walking back along the west bank the weather rapidly deteriorated with the wind increasing to near gale W>7 and a heavy horizontal rain shower. The wind was freakish making walking along the banking top hazardous, especially when you,re watching the sky instead of where you are going.
By the time I got back to the south shore area the wind eased back down to W>5 with 40 % cloud cover and some welcome blue sky which is very unusual for me to be pleased to see blue sky. With this improvement I stayed on sky watching for another 30 minutes before a drive on the top road looking for Wheatear.
After a good run over the last week today was payback time with 90 minutes birding producing 4 Red Grouse, 3 LBB gulls 2 Kestrels and 2 Carrion Crow.
Two checks on the Raggalds Flood today produced nothing the first time and 11 small gulls the second.
Oh well, theres always tomorrow.
BS