Christmas Eve Bash. Fly Flatts.

            Early start, Bombers Moon was lighting up the water.

                                          Here comes the daylight

                                        Hardy Stonechat saving the morning.

With an east wind blowing I checked for an Eastern
Stonechat but unfortunately this is one of ours with
white wing bar and dark rump.

Fly Flatts .  0800 hrs - 1000 hrs. Blue sky and sunshine, light E>2  Minus 1 degree.
                                                                A real icy drive to Fly Flatts just before first light not getting properly daylight until 0830 hrs.
Herring gulls were the first and only sky movers this morning with several >SW  just as daybreak started to show with quiet skies the rest of the watch . The geese I expected over never materialized.
                                                                    The water was like a mill pond but held nothing other than 3 Black Headed gulls. A single Kestrel was over the moor along with a few Red Grouse and Pheasants, the latter seeming to outnumber the Grouse this year .
The only passerines were a Reed Bunting near the lagoon and a single Stonechat part way up the track towards the top gate.
BS