An horrendous day up at the reservoir with a morning of lashing rain on a moderate S>4 and low cloud. By 0945 hrs the fog had rolled in so up stumps and away home. Late afternoon was clear but with the wind turned SW>5 it brought through banks of heavy horizontal drizzle so again an early finish with the drizzle shutting down visibility. An evening dog walk at Queensbury found it dry and bright but a near gale force W>7.
Not a wader to be found today with an empty shoreline and ponds with just a single female Mallard, 4 juv Wheatear and several Meadow Pipits.
The poor conditions did,nt deter the gulls with LBBs moving through >SE , one of which was an Intermedius showing very dark backed and black enough to be a Baltic but I,m not going there, even though Spurn have been getting Baltic recently.
A single Common gull went over the water >N and half a dozen Swallows >SW.
With more rain forecast for tomorrow the water level will be rising fast but hopefully it will leave me enough shoreline to last until the end of September.
Visible Migration
6 Swallow.................>SW
63 LBB....................>SE, inc 1 Intermedius
1 Common gull >N
4 juv Wheatear............blogging
sev Meadow Pipit.......blogging.
Present
c 140 Canada goose, numbers dwindling now
2 Barnacle goose
1 f Mallard
BS
1 Pied Wagtail ad m.