A mixed grill of weather this morning at Ogden with heavy showers throughout. One minute it was blue sky and sunshine, the next, torrential rain showers, on a WSW>3 at 5 degrees. The day deteriorated as it went on giving me two good soakings when dog walking over Foxhill, mid and late afternoon.
Though once again, nothing special and only a handful of small gulls on the water, the waterside and carpark trees were enough to keep the interest going.
Plenty of the 4 common Tit species with Long Tailed being the dominant bird, both in the car park and along the west bank. Good to get a flock of around 10 Chaffinch in the car park area restoring the hopes of another Brambling sighting , or even a northern Chaffinch, 'coelebs', which have features making them identifiable in the field, though I don't recall any local reports of them in the last few years but a species that will easily be overlooked.
Northern Robins and Blackbirds are easy to identify as well as Northern Long Tailed Tits, with the latter being due for a sighting, as its several years now since the Castle Carr birds. Well you have got to have a dream have'nt you !
Only 4 Bullfinch found this morning along with 3 Goldcrest and the usual woodland species.
All sailing cancelled today at Fly Flatts due to extreme conditions.
With tonights forecast of overnight fog probably lingering into the morning its showing to be a cloudy day with a chance of rain and snow on a cold N3-4 at 3 degrees.
BS
BS