Awoke this morning to find very icy and snow covered roads so gave the morning session a miss before attacking Leeshaw mid afternoon. Just a couple of Oxenhope roads were tricky until I got to the reservoir track which was well snow covered but looked drive-able. Half way up the slope I ground to a halt and then things got a bit exciting when the car started sliding backwards down the slope on sheet ice. I slung it round on full lock and luckily it spun right round to face back down the slope so I could drive out of it. After that scare I parked at the bottom and walked the rest of the way.
A lovely clear, sunny blue sky at 1 degree and very calm.
Very lively bird wise with Blackbirds, Redwing, Fieldfare and Mistle Thrush moving around the hedges and fields whilst around 100 small gulls were on the water along with 3 Herring and 2 LBB.
Plenty activity with wildfowl, showing a good sign of movement, with 78 Mallard on the water along with a single Teal whilst the first flock on winter geese returned very noisily, landing in a nearby field just over the ridge and out of site.
These were all Greylags with a count of 188 including the usual white job. The Canadas are yet to arrive usually taking the full winter flock up to around 370 which usually has one or two Pink Footed in with them. In January 2013 a group of 44 Barnacles dropped in for a few days.
Looks like Fly Flatts is going to be ice-bound for a few days yet so I,ll have to move around a bit until we get a thaw.
BS