Terrible conditions up on the tops throughout the day with fog , heavy drizzle and a moderate W>5 at 5 degrees.
Leeshaw early a.m. was just under the cloud base but light fog banks kept moving through with some heavy drizzle showers.
A lot less gulls today with around 150 small gulls but very mobile making life difficult trying to check through them.
A couple of small skeins of geese went over with 24 Pinkies only just visible in the cloud and heading >NE to avoid the clag. These were closely followed by 12 Greylag a little lower but following the same direction of >NE.
A single female Goosander was on the water along with a Cormorant whilst around 150 Starling were moving field to field.
Heading for TMR mid afternoon was aborted due to fog so on to Leeming reservoir, a water I seldom visit as it is a YW permissive footpath on the west bank of the reservoir so can be busy in decent weather. Needless to say, in todays conditions I had the place to myself and I have to say, I was surprised how clean the area was with not an ounce of litter to be seen.
Around 40 Mallard on the water as well as a single female Goosander, possibly the Leeshaw bird from this morning. This is another patch of water lacking Tufted duck whereas there are usually several pairs present, where are all the local Tufted.
Very few gulls present with just a single adult Herring as well as 12 Commons and 4 Black Headed.
Small passerines were the bird of the afternoon visit with a good tit flock with the 4 common tit species along with Robins, Dunnocks and a charm of 14 Goldfinch high up in the Alders.
At the SW corner a small group on mixed Siskin and Redpoll were feeding in the tall Alders but very flighty and soon disappeared over the ridge.
Tomorrows weather looks like a re run of today with cloud and a moderate W>5, hopefully without the fog.
BS