Foggy frost

Heysham Obs
Peel Holdings missed a Christmas calendar opportunity this morning as the Heysham Harbour landmarks such as chain-link fences, barbed wire, sea-buckthorn and bits of leftover Oxford ragwort were all covered in a picturesque hoar frost.  The problem was that you could hardly see across the harbour, never mind a search out to sea.

North wall circuit
Song Thrush - 1
Robin - 3
Wren - 1
Rock Pipit - 1
Twite - 29, including at least 4 unringed and presumably the usual Machrihanish-ringed bird
Linnet - 5
Goldfinch - c8
Med Gull - adult and 2CY

The rest of the day seemed to be chained to MapMate as the long-overdue moths were all finally entered, with all the 'big days' in July (it was a pretty poor year otherwise), left to the time-consuming last.  Re-sorting on a Bradley and Fletcher A to Z really brough home how scarce some normally taken for granted species were this year, especially perhaps in May and June.  Others, on the other hand were thriving, notably the recent colonist, Blackneck