1500 hrs at Fly Flatts on a real maritime bird day failed to produce the goods but an interesting watch with the weather and water being the main feature.
Luckily the showers were less frequent and light, leaving just the wind to contend with. A gale force NW>8 was blowing giving me a reading of 42 m.p.h. creating massive waves which were crashing over the track in the SE corner.
A walk on the south shore to the SW corner was enough with no chance of attempting the west bank so back to the boat yard and after about 6 attempts of positioning the car for the best shelter and view I set up my stall behind the tailgate ready for 1 hours sky/water watch.
Surprisingly , even with the wind so strong there was enough to keep me occupied throughout but no target birds as yet . Two Buzzards were up very high over the ridge soaring around and not concerned about the weather at all whilst 18 Lapwings kept moving between the west bank and the flat moor where around 20 Golden Plover gave a short blast off but dropped back down almost immediately.
Herring gulls were heading >SW with a count of 9 very low over the moor keeping below the sky line and the 4, previously reported , Stock Doves once again flew low over the water heading towards the Withins.
So nothing special but good to be out and see mother nature at her worse showing the power of the wind and water and of course these are the conditions when its important to check local waters for maritime birds blown in from the west. A good effort from DJS for checking Mixenden and Fly Flatts earlier in the afternoon, you can,t keep us old hardy birders down, we thrive on bad weather.
BS