Fog on the tops this morning so a move to Leeshaw reservoir with cloudy sunshine and a moderate SE>3 at 7 degrees.
The Oystercatcher flock is now up to 26 birds so far, usually building to the mid 30s before they disperse to breed. Good to get the first Redshanks back with 4 present along with around 12 Curlew.
Noisy Lapwing are everywhere with several now sitting eggs and the males busy keeping off the Crows which is a full time job with the number of Crows present.
A single Buzzard went overhead chased on its way by a Crow whilst the pair of Little Owl sat motionless on the usual wall. Very poor on the gulls with just around 40 small, all checked for Meds, its just one year today since I had an Iceland at Leeshaw.
A mid afternoon at Ogden was poor in the strengthened SE>4 with just 5 Black Headed and 3 Common gulls on the water along with 4 Canadas and the usual Mallards.
Having done the west bank yesterday I concentrated on the east bank today which just held a few Long Tailed, Great and Blue Tits . Passerine Alley was disappointing to see having been well cut back and thinned out .
Back round on the west bank the wind was blowing through like a tunnel which had pushed all yesterdays passerines back into the deeper wood apart from 2 Treecreepers and 4 Goldcrest plus the usual Robins etc. Only 1 Chaffinch found so little chance of Brambling this year.
The female Kingfisher was in its usual position patiently waiting for fish.
BS