Another stonking morning weather wise with full blue skies and sunshine on brisk W>3 at minus 3 degrees as I arrived at Leeshaw and up to minus 1 degree at 1000 hrs as I left but pleasant to be out in the sun.
A pleasant surprise on the way to Leeshaw early morn as I drove past the Denholme Velvets building site when a Woodcock flew across the road in front of the car and dropped over the wall into the old disused graveyard. This is my first Woodcock since one at Ogden, Nov 2016 and the one before that was Soil Hill, Feb 2014. Woodcock are always the same, you don,t find them, they find you.
Conditions at Leeshaw were ideal with a perfect winter morning with a walk up past the farm onto the moor top. Once again,very hard work turning the birds up with very few in the frozen fields though several small gulls were up in the fields on the hillside where the full sun will have been softening the earth.
Only 1 Herring gull on the water today as well as 2 Canadas and 1 Greylag with no sign of the winter goose flock as yet. A hardy Wren was checking the dry stone wall for insects whilst 2 Meadow Pipits were in the field along with a distant Fieldfare. Otherwise it was just down to the usual species including lots of Jackdaw, Woodpigs and Starlings.
BS