Bright clear skies at Fly Flatts this morning in a strong near gale W>6 gusting 7 at 33 m.p.h turning SW>5 mid morn at 6 degrees. By afternoon at Ogden the wind had eased with some dark threatening skies.
Very little to boost the enthusiasm at Fly this morning with any signs of autumn vis mig now come to a close at this altitude though we should start getting cross Pennine Pinks over later in the month and during December. This time of year is quiet now and its a matter of taking what comes which can be in the form of winter rarities, either on the water or in the form of passerines.
For some strange reason, unknown to me, I went to Ogden late afternoon where the car park was chocker and I ended up parking up on the 3rd floor drug dealing department although it seemed safe with plenty public up there. Ogden used to be quiet mid week in the afternoon but now its nearly as bad as the weekends.
I said I was,nt going to waste any more time trekking up to the Giants Tooth looking for Crossbills but ended up doing just that in order to get away from the crowds around the reservoir track and after 20 minutes watching up there I came away saying the same thing again.
The only things of note back down at the bottom was a group of 13 Greylags coming in from the high west and doing a circuit over the water as if to land but then headed off towards Mixenden.
The other being a partial albino Jackdaw feeding in the duck area.No sign of Chris,s Mandarin.
Heres hoping for a better birding day tomorrow.
Fly Flatts
8 LBB gull.....>SE
7 Canadas
2 Kestrel
1 Peregrine
4 Raven
1 Fieldfare, grounded.
Ogden
12 Canadas
13 Greylag, fly overs
+ usual gulls, mallards etc.
BS