15 Meadow Pipits.
Very little time this morning so just a quick hour up there and an early finish.
A cracking morning to be out with 0 okts clear blue skies on a light N>2 at -1 degrees and excellent visibility. The ponds were frozen over as well as all the mud so it made it easier for walking without going ankle deep.
Very little around with 7 Herring gulls >NE and 2 local Raven as well as a single Kestrel in the sky. A pair of Stonechat eluded photos by surprisingly keeping near the diggers which were revving up to clear the windscreens and the Bentley workers close by. Despite all the disturbance they stayed put and out of my access area and by the time the workers had moved on so had the chats.
Whilst I was watching them a Merlin shot across the Flat Moor and disappeared beyond the Wind Turbines.
Late afternoon and back to Fly Flatts only to find with the ice melting and tipper wagons and plant machinery moving around, the place was like a quagmire with even the entrance track deep in mud. Despite me fighting all the odds against me up there the area is slowly beating me with now very little water and very limited places that I can walk so other than frozen mornings I may have to put this site on a back burner for a while over the winter.
On seeing the place this afternoon I went over the hill to Leeshaw where things were pretty quiet other than the usual species. A Dipper, Pied Wagtail and Grey Wagtail were down in the beck but very mobile whilst a small group of 15 Meadow Pipits were in a stubble field feeding, looking like ideal conditions to pick up something exotic among them but not today.
It was on my way home that the fun started, driving along Long Causeway and about 1/2 a mile from the Denholme Road the traffic suddenly stopped. Queues of cars could be seen right to the main road and way up the hill and out of sight and after sitting 10 minutes without moving I managed to turn round and had to drive right back towards Leeshaw and back over the tops past Fly Flatts. This road, Nab Water Lane, is a nightmare at tea time with works traffic using it as a rat run
and too narrow for two cars passing with limited passing places, hence, what should have been a 15 minutes drive from Leeshaw home took me just over 1 hour. You can imaging how my neck was throbbing when I got back and mumbling that I,ll never do this again, but of course I will !
BS