1445 hrs and a quick check on Lower Laithe reservoir for Whoopers with no success other than small gulls and Oystercatchers. Around 30 Golden Plover were in the usual field at Upper Marsh.
1500 hrs at Leeshaw reservoir on a spring like afternoon despite the biting E>5 but once again the west side being unworkable due to the sun.
In short of 2 hours watch I think I saw more birds in one go locally than ever before with the sky, the water and the fields alive. The water and banking held over 400 geese whilst skein after skein of Greylags went over >N. Lapwings were in every field along with Starlings, Meadow Pipits and Fieldfare with a massive flock of Golden Plover giving distant aerobatic displays.
Oystercatcher numbers are building fast and a good count of Herring gulls, none of them making me look twice for Caspian gull with a completely different flight pattern and jizz to the Fly Flatts bird without even starting to go into description.
A really memorable birding session, if only I coould get this lot over to Fly Flatts.
215 Canada geese
193 Greylag geese + at least 100 over >N
19 Oystercatcher
c 40 Meadow Pipit
c 60 Fieldfare
c200 Lapwing
4 Curlew
9 Herring gull
3 LBB gull
c 100 small gull
c 150 Golden Plover
1 Cormorant
c 150 Starling
1 Kestrel
+ usual sp.
BS