taken from the south end, mega distance.
A stonking late afternoon watch at Fly Flatts with the wind swung right round to the SW> 3 with
40% cloud cover, blue skies and sunshine. A real springtime feeling with the noise of Canada geese on the water and Lapwings along the east bank as well as a Curlew calling several times from over on the west moor .
Two groups of Lapwings landed in seperate areas of the east bank where at least 3 Goldies were present whilst several Greylags were still on the move mainly flying over >E.
Back at the south end I scoped 3 Short Eared Owls up together briefly before they moved off towards Nab Water Lane and then as I was driving back above Slade I anchored on to get some distant shots of another Shortie heading toward the wind farm. Quite a day at Fly Flatts.
4 Short Eared Owl
112 Lapwing
3 Golden Plover
1 Curlew
11 Greylag geese
13 Canada geese
1 Raven.
Foot Note :- I have received an e mail from Bentleys, who do reservoir repairs for YW, giving me
advanced warning of forthcoming repairs to Fly Flatts reservoir this coming summer.
The reservoir is once again going to be drained to allow extensive work to be carried out by digging part of the west bank away to fit a new and larger syphon pipe from the reservoir and going underground to the round tower area. Other than that a whole new banking at the north end is to be made from large boulders and possible some boulders at the SE corner. This work is to start in June and is expected to take 9 months to complete during which time all public access to the reservoir grounds will be forbidden including closing the public footpath at the north end.
Other than disturbance, this will of course be good for the waders picking up this autumns birds as well as spring 2020 birds and beyond as this reservoir can only be filled by natural rain water and if the work doesnt finish until April/May 2020 there could be little rain over the summer.
This of course is a devastating blow to the sailing club who lost near a full seasons sailing last year and now face losing half a season this year and probably again in 2020.
Bentleys have asked me to have a site meeting with them so I,ll be probably be a little wiser after that.
BS