A decent clear morning at Fly Flatts with a cool WSW>4 at 5 degrees. Mostly cloudy but a few pockets of sun throughout.
Plenty Raven activity up there now with this early breeding species with 4 birds showing regular and usually being mobbed by Crows. A walk along the west bank again produced no winter Bunting or Lark with just a few Red Grouse which only need to keep their heads down for another couple of weeks now till the end of the season.
Just a solitary Canada Goose on the water plus a few Mallard whilst a small number of Herring gulls moved >NE overhead.
Limited time in the afternoon and too later start to check Mixenden gulls as the big gulls leave around 1415 hrs and it was already 1400 hrs before I set off.
First stop was the Thornton pond which was a surprise to find absolutely nothing present after the last visit which produced 19 Teal and a few Mallard.
On then to the Thornton gull fields with another blank other than half a dozen Black Headed.
Not to be disheartened I called at the Roper Lane watch point to see what movement was going on through the Causeway Foot Col. Things were a little livelier here in the 30 minutes I had left with pre roost gulls heading >SW and a count of 84 Common, c 100 Black Headed, 16 Herring and 2 Lesser Black Backed plus 1 Sparrowhawk.
A text from birder Andrew reporting a skein of Pink Footed Geese over Haworth midday probably marks the start on trans Pennine geese on the move which usually kicks off late December.
BS