An ideal morning at Fly Flatts with light grey skies on a SW>3 at 6 degrees and perfect visibility.
At the start it looked as if it was going to be a major Fieldfare and Woodpig morning but this soon fizzled out with a small number of species moving throughout the watch. Two very light coloured Bunting species caught me off guard going over very high and away from me with no call heard. I,d have liked to put them as Snow Bunting but not enough on them to confirm that.
Without a doubt Pinkies were the star performers with 4 skeins coming over from the west heading east passing over Ogden and Bradshaw areas all within a short time of one another. Possibly Trans Pennine birds , an amazing sight to see. A count of 498 geese in skeins of 103, 94, 142 and 159.
A good bit of team work between HC,DCB and myself alerting each other as the geese appeared.
Late afternoon was quiet with just a few Mipits over >S and very few gulls present though the highlight was 33 Golden Plover at distance on the north west shore.
Vis Mig
12 Golden Plover.........................>SE
236 Woodpigs.............................>S
14 Mipits....................................>S
61 Jackdaws...............................>S
28 LBB gull...............................>SW
10 Herring.................................>SW
2 Bunting sp.............................>W
130 Starling.............................>NW
82 Fieldfare............................>NW
1 Mistle Thrush.....................>NW
498 Pink Footed Goose................>E
Present
56 Mallard
11 BH gull
2 Herring Gull
4 LBB gull
33 Goldies
BS