We went to bed in thick fog last night and amazingly woke up to clear skies in the morning. Fly Flatts had full cloud with a few sunny breaks and some claggy cloud well out to the west. A light SW>3 at 10 degrees.
Several flocks of Redwing >S as I was driving through Bradshaw and Mixenden with several post birds coming out of the Mixenden reservoir plantation though non over Fly Flatts which is the norm for most moving migrants. Birds south-bound seem to mainly use the Causeway Foot Col and so cannot be seen from Fly Flatts due to the eastern ridge. This is why TMR has always been a much better vantage point than Fly Flatts.
Having said that, I had a very lively morning with another quick sighting of Ring Ouzel, if its the same bird, as plenty are now moving down the country. The bird this time was below the west bank and flew up in front of me dropping onto the edge of the moor, not to be re-located.
I luckily got a few record snaps of it thanks to having the Canon 300mm lens on as when this lens is rigged to the Canon 7d mk2 camera it has a killer fast auto focus. I loose the distance that I had with the 600mm but get twice the auto focus speed plus more light.
Mid watch and a noisy skein of Pink Footed Geese came overhead but very high >SE and as I was approaching Wainstalls on the way home a 2nd skein was to the west of me heading>W in the direction of Stoodley Pike but by the time I stopped they were well out of camera reach.
Woodpigeons were moving >W whilst LBB gulls were heading >NE along with 4 Herrings on the water. Still up to 8 Stonechat around the compound as well as 4 Reed Bunting and a few Meadow Pipits. Good to be up on the tops with no fog this morning.
Several Redwing..........>S
87 Pinks.......................>SE
c 80 Pinks.....................>W
LBBs...........................>NE
4 Herring ...................on water
1 Ring Ouzel
8 Stonechat
4 Reed Bunting
few Mipits
1 Raven
Woodpigs..................>S
4 Kestrel
+ usual sp.
BS