A free afternoon so where else to spend it other than Fly Flatts. 1315 hrs with a strong SE>5-6 but good visibility and 90 % cloud cover.
Due to the strength of the wind and roughness of the water things were much quieter than yesterday with birds sticking on the ground out of the wind. The Canadas did,nt seem bothered with the water or wind and just carried on about their business as usual with several now starting to settle on the moor ready for breeding.
No Redshank today and only one distant Curlew though bird calls were out of the question with the noise of the wind.
With the SE blowing I thought we were in for a Whooper Swan move but checks on Mixenden and Cold Edge at 1300 hrs and again at 1545 hrs found nothing although there was a grapevine report of 13 on Cold Edge at some point in the afternoon but these must have been short stayers and left >W rather than >N otherwise I would have picked them up over Fly Flatts.
A small group of 7 Golden Plover were in the Nolstar fields but 5 fields lower down. For some reason they are avoiding the usual field where the Dotterels were.
BS