A real wet morning with heavy to torrential rain throughout on a strong SE>5 at 2 degrees. Luckily the fog stayed up on the tops but dropped lower late morning.
With the dogs and me waterproofed up we set off for Ogden to check the water where the visibility was reasonable with light mist but bad seeing through the pouring rain with bins constantly steaming up.
The waterside tracks were caked in mud so just stuck to the promenade area to scan the water without having to get home and bath the dogs. The 6 Tufted duck were back on the water at the north end along with a Little Grebe constantly diving . With nothing else showing I headed to Mixenden to check the water.
It was still bouncing down at Mixenden but by this time I couldn't get any wetter so a walk up the track at the south side of the reservoir. Just a few Black Headed gull present, as expected, as the bulk of the gulls, plus the big gulls, don't usually arrive at the reservoirs until late morning at this time of year, which are pre roost birds, usually leaving for their roost around 1500 hrs.
The Shelduck was surprisingly still present for its 3rd day but sticking to the north end of the water and hard to spot.
Apart from an ice warning for morning its looking good with some sunshine on a light SE at 1 degree
then back to the fog by late afternoon.
BS