Heavy overnight snow leaving bad road conditions early morn sent me dog walking over Foxhill after abandoning the morning birding session. A mid day shopping trip found very little snow on lower ground and by mid afternoon the snow was melting fast at Queensbury.
Fly Flatts had quite a bit of drifted snow but clear roads and track. A case of sunshine and snow showers on a cold N>4 at 1 degree. As I was leaving, the skies blackened and the snow blasted down blanking out all visibility but cleared by the time I,d dropped down to Wainstalls.
However do the birds, up on the tops, survive in conditions such as this.
As expected it was reasonably quiet with no sign of Curlew or Redshank leaving the peninsular empty but it was strange to watch the Ringed Plover pair dashing around feeding in the snow, a sight seldom seen.
Lapwings seemed to ignore the snow completely with several sitting eggs surrounded by snow whilst others were busy feeding on the waters edge. A single Skylark gave a half hearted attempt of singing and a noisy Raven was over the quarry.
With March gone and April arriving tomorrow I should be seeing the arrival of the first Common Sandpiper, Dunlin and Little Ringed Plover though the latter gave me a miss last year as they like plenty exposed shore which never happened last year at this site.
Sand Martins and Swallows are now sneaking into the area with 3 Swallows seen today over Paul Clough, Oxenhope as well as 2 Wheatear on Nab Water Lane though the Wheatear havent reached just as high as Fly Flatts yet.
Watch you don,t get fooled in the morning!!!!
BS