Yet another decent morning, weather wise, at Fly Flatts after a damp and low cloud base start to leave 80% cloud on a cold E>3 at 2 degrees with odd bursts of sunshine.
Two annual firsts this morning with a Snipe flying out of the dyke and dropping onto the 'Flat Moor.' A rare sighting now at both Fly Flatts and Leeshaw which both sites used to have birds up constantly drumming. The second annual was a distant Short Eared Owl well out over the moor, another rare sighting where I had 5 breeding pairs a few years back.
Waders were the same as previous days and still awaiting Dunlin whilst 2 pair of Greylag and a Mallard all have young with several more of each species sitting eggs.
Buzzard, Raven, Herring gull and LBB gull were overhead but very poor for Wheatear this year, so far, as by now I should be over-run with them. Just 2 showing in the Nolstar field along with 2 Oystercatchers.
Instead of the usual Foxhill dog walk this afternoon I took them up Soil Hill to check out the Ring Ouzel hotspots, which was not one of my best ideas, having to carry the dogs, one under each arm, part of the way over the swampy parts.
Amazing how the site has changed since my last visit, and certainly since the good old days up there, with trees growing all over the area making it now an almost woodland birding site. A few years from now, though not in my lifetime, the area will be major woodland. The only thing that has'nt changed is the vantage point with spectacular views 360 degrees. Too hazy today to see the main vantage points of the Humber Bridge, 3 Peaks, North Yorkshires 'white horse', Malham Cove and York Minster.
Bird wise, several Skylarks, Mipits and Linnets but little else which was expected at the time of day plus only a small section of the hill was checked as not a dog friendly walking area.
Not looking good for morning with a strong N then NW wind, rain and poor visibility.
BS