Snow Bunting, Pendle Hill Summit.
TEN SNOW BUNTINGS WAS THE HIGHLIGHT of a hike up Pendle Hill today. An extensive search of the summit also produced 16 European Golden Plovers, 3 Common Snipe and a Red Grouse, not a bad midwinter walk up there. I remember seeing only Red Grouse on several occasions at this time of year. The Snow Buntings were of the nominate form nivalis so are probably from the continent rather than to the northwest of us. As usual they were flighty and generally unapproachable. Thanks to Neil Mitchell who had already tracked them down to one of their favourite spots. This was the first of many walks up Pendle over the next couple of months!
Pendle Summit is pretty much water-logged at the moment.