With thick fog up on the tops this morning it was head for Leeshaw which usually manages to keep below the cloud base, which this morning was no exception with clag on the top of the moor but decent visibility below with a mild SW>3 at 7 degrees in full cloud.
Just as I thought the winter gull season was about over, Herring gulls were coming through in force, stopping off briefly on the water, before moving on >W. As always , with this venue, the area was alive with sounds of the uplands with Curlew, Oystercatcher, Redshank and Lapwing, several of the latter are now sitting eggs with the partner bird busy seeing off Crows, Magpies and other rival Lapwings.
The water was disappointing for wildfowl with just Mallard, Greylag and Canadas, and a word with BV up there informed me that there had been no sign of Whoopers during the big push north over the last few days.
The resident 2 Little Owls were present with one actually flying across the field which was an unusual sight for what I find as a very boring bird which just sit in one position day long.
A first Swallow over very high and >NW was the earliest sighting that I have had with no other March sightings over the years, whilst down in the beck a Dipper and Kingfisher were showing well.
LEESHAW
1 Swallow......................>NW
43 Herring gull..............>W
5 Common gull.............>W
2 BH gull......................present
8 Redshank
19 Oystercatchers
15 Curlew
sev Lapwing
2 m Pied Wagtail
2 Little Owl
1 Cormorant
1 Dipper
1 Kingfisher
sev Greylag and Canadas
+ usual sp.
BS