At last, a bright clear morning at Fly Flatts with 50% cloud cover and sunshine on a SW>4 at a cold
4 degrees. Cloud to the west eventually moved in by 1015 hrs bringing light drizzle.
It felt good to be back on home soil at Fly Flatts after a week of fog and low cloud although the enthusiasm soon diminished with empty skies and water and to make things worse the lads at Oxenhope were getting skeins of Pinkies over Leeshaw reservoir where I,ve just spent the last week of mornings.
Nevertheless it was a good morning to be out with a full trek of the reservoir plus the top and bottom tracks. I was hoping for a November Wheatear on the Robin rock but just a Stonechat present there . In anticipation I got my first lot of Snow Bunting seed down although my Snow Bunts at Fly Flatts have always occurred early December onward though November was always a good time for Soil Hill Bunts.
A single Herring gull over plus 2 Greylags broke the boredom whilst 3 Canadas were on the water.
Late afternoon and bright skies got my plan in action to check the water at Ogden and then back to the Giants Tooth to get some cracking photos of Crossbill, well you,ve got to be ambitious.
The first part went well with several Herring and LBBs on the water but heavy sun reflection on the water whilst on the east bank made photos impossible so back up the hill to the Giants Tooth.
On arrival, just as I,d got my breath back, a single Crossbill flew over from the Pines on the right of the track to the left hand trees. As it landed it disturbed a second bird then both birds dropped into the tree. By now dark clouds were piling over from the west with specks of rain coming so I knew I had,nt got long to locate them.
The tree they had gone into was badly silhouetted and no signs of the birds. A 15 minute scan produced nothing and then clouds burst and it was the same scenario as yesterday with heavy rain and too dark to see into the trees.
Back down by the water I bumped into Bradshaw John looking wet and despondent and after a bit of a moan about birds and lock downs we went our separate ways whilst the rain came down in stair rods, at one point you could,nt even see the water for rain.
Midway along the west bank I came across a nice build up of winter passerines flitting through the waterside trees with Goldcrests, Coal Tits, Blue Tits and Treecreepers but way too dark with the black clouds and dense trees to check them out. I managed one grim photo of a Goldcrest with the camera wide open to its limits at 16,000 iso.
Sunshine throughout promised for tomorrow but it will take some getting used to not birding in waterproofs.
Bad for the sailors at Fly Flatts today with some turning up to take their boats away for the winter as , after just 2 months back on the water, the lock down means they have to close the club again which takes them to the end of the season.
Fly Flatts
2 Greylag......>SE
1 Herring gull.>SW
1 Stonechat
3 Canadas
Ogden
2 Crossbill
6 Herring gull
8 LBB gull
c 50 Small gull
c 20, mixed flock of Coal,Tit
Blue Tit
Goldcrest
Treecreeper
BS