A bit of a blow this morning to find myself grounded by snow with the roads well covered and no sign of gritters that only operate in Queensbury May to September due to health and safety! so a dog walk around Foxhill and a few snowy snaps for people in the low lands that had no trace of snow today.
By late afternoon the roads were just sloppy but the tops were still snowy and icy so a trip to Redcar Tarn to get a few flight shots of the gulls. Unfortunately, by the time I arrived there, the sky had dulled over forcing me back onto a high iso reading as I needed to keep the exp reading high to capture the moving targets ,hence more noise on the images (grain effect).
Not too many gulls around as it was now 1445 hrs so several had headed off towards their roost but enough to play around with and a few in flight which was what I was after.
Around 100 Black Headeds, 12 Common, 2 Lesser Black Backed and 18 Herring, none of which made me think of anything unusual. The usual wildfowl were on the water but no Tufted today which was unusual. The surrounding Hawthorns held several Redwings whilst the Chaffinch flock of around 30 birds held at least 5 Brambling but all very mobile in the dark lower edges of the bushes.
A good session with the gulls this afternoon made up for a dip out this morning and hopefully the snow is on its way now.
Coming up past Crow Point from Halifax early afternoon a Buzzard was soaring over the hillside above the Howcans.
BS