With freezing fog and black ice early morning it was just a dog walk at Ogden with the fog so thick you could hardly see the water. A check of the duck corner for Mandarin and a Gt Spotted Woodpecker just visible on the lodge house feeders then a walk with the dogs up the moorland track with an early finish.
Mid afternoon and the fog cleared, though still hanging over the Fly Flatts wind farm, with a NE>3 at 1 degree.
The gulls in the Ten Yards Lane fields were very mobile today with the presence of a Sparrowhawk constantly flying around and spooking them , making them move from one area to another throughout. Just time for a quick scope through them before they all blasted off and dropped into a field about half a mile away near to the Ring o Bells.
With all the tackle thrown back in the car I drove round the Well Heads road and relocated them giving me enough time to scope through them and pick out a 1st winter Med gull which MP, who I met up there, believed it to be one of the birds he had yesterday.
Once again the gulls flew off and a drive round the area failed to find them until they briefly returned to Ten Yards Lane but in a distant field too far away to view.
Back home and a text from my early warning goose station at Horton Bank Top ( Peter Turner) reporting Pinks over Shelf heading my way. Grabbing the camera I shot out in the garden and after a few minutes I could hear the contact calls as they came into view over Foxhill heading >W. Thanks again for the call Peter.
Thornton fields
c 800 small gulls
4 1st winter Herring gull
1 1st winter Med gull
1 Sparrowhawk
c 200 Starling
12 Fieldfare
BS