After overnight snow then a heavy covering at midday at last the thaw started but ,as always, the milder weather brought down the fog.
1500 hrs and back to Mixenden to check the Dunlin situation with hopes of more joining them but the dense fog had followed me from Queensbury with visibility down to 30 yards being able to see less than half way across the water.
I soon picked up one Dunlin which was constantly moving up and down the west shoreline with several dog walkers, sledges and snowballers causing plenty disturbance. A walk along the west bank to the NW corner failed to find the other 2 Dunlin although I wouldnt have expected them to move in the fog so possibly still around but never joined the single bird throughout.
Photographic conditions were grim given the distance and light but even working at 600 mm I could rescue enough light using the brightness of the snow and ice. The beauty of the Canon 7d Mk2 is that it is a 1.6 crop factor camera so when working at 600mm the camera takes it out to 960mm without using a converter .
A text from fellow mechanic Derek Wood, (Woodbridge Autos ) reported that the large female Sparrowhawk that I keep seeing near the garage area is slowly reducing the Black Dyke Mills feral pigeon population regularly taking one and eating it in the mill grounds. Thanks for that info Derek.
A few more shots of Dunlin on ice from today.
It even seemed to find food probing the ice
BS