Wet, bright late December morning

Had a little look round the LDV this morning, somewhat hampered by very strong winds and a collosal amount of water. The road between Sutton and Melbourne was impassable so I had to detour round to Allerthorpe, then Thornton and back to Melbourne. Likewise Aughton Church was unreachable due to a floooded road that I wasn't willing to risk. The floods on Wheldrake were impressive looking across from East Cottingwith, the winds whipping up white horses akin to the North Sea. Not much here apart from several Tufties and a few groups of Teal and Wigeon. On to Bubwith, where the road seemed like a causeway across a lake. A large group of Whoopers were too distant to discern any smaller cousins, and highlights in the area were a single female Marsh Harrier, a Peregrine, 25+ Pochards and a handful of Pintail. Several Dunlin were with the twitchy Lapwing flock and a couple of Buzzards circled on the high winds.