Another bright sunny morning with fog hanging in the valleys but clear blue skies on the tops. A cold start at 1 degree with a thick ground frost on a light W>2.
The outstanding feature this morning at Leeshaw was, after 2 months to the day, the long staying Red Necked Grebe has gone. Possibly moved to Lower Laithe or Ponden and may return but I expect, more than likely, it has headed off East to its summer breeding grounds, time will tell.
The big goose field was getting a good coating of foul smelling manure which was bringing the gulls in as I left but looking right into the sun so no chance of scanning them. Several other fields held gulls but mostly very distant.
Still awaiting some winter wildfowl but Wigeon, Goldeneye, Teal and Pintail seem in very short supply this year. A group of 16 Oystercatchers were mobile along with 3 Curlew and around 60 Lapwing, several guarding territory in the fields.
Plenty Greylag and Canada as usual but only about 30 Herring gulls showed up on the water. Plenty of the usual species but nothing else of note.
The Dog and Gun field on the way home just held 2 Herring plus around 50 small gulls.
Cloudy sunshine for morning, depending where the fog ends up, on a light westerly again, starting off at 1 degree. Hopefully March is a better month when things should be starting to happen.
BS