Friday, December 17, 2010

Isle of Grain

Bloody freezing today with an air temperature of -7 and a brisk north wind.
Not too much to count on the first stop of 3.
3 Bewicks dropped in briefly but were away before I my numb hands could get the camera out


Merry Christmas from Christmas Lane


Day 2. Just as cold with the added bonus of snow showers. This bird was at a rather non picturesque industrial estate that backed onto the Medway


A bit further along and birds were being pushed off the mud on the rising tide, passing pretty close. Light levels terrible though so shutter speeds low



Another Power Station tick


A few Brents started coming in from the nearby fields



After some searching located a Brant in the flock. Dont know if this is bird is known about, I wouldnt have thought many people would be birding here so maybe not. Cant remember seeing it on the pager



This was when the fun started. The intermittent snow showers suddenly became very heavy and as it turned out, prolonged. I was due to do one more visit before heading home but this was out of the question, things were starting to look very bad so decided to head for home. I was too late to beat the traffic and the fair weather motorists were soon sliding around and blocking the roads. Picked my way through a few queues only to meet the next one. Not knowing the area was really frustrating as I tried to keep off the main highways which were all becoming blocked.

The problem here was a van (top of picture) which couldnt get up the hill and was just sliding around mostly sideways.



7 hours and 45 minutes later I was safetly home!