A bright day dawned last Friday so I set off up to Stoodley Pike, down the Pennine Way to the Rochdale Canal and the River Calder then back up the hill and home. It was bright and sunny but cold (-12 overnight). As I started up the hill I could see clouds gathering to the NW and they were heading my way.
I reckoned I had about 15 minutes before they reached me so I carried on. As I got about 2/3 of the way up I noticed that clouds were rolling down from the top as well. The snow was quite deep in places where it had drifted and the path was obscurred so I went off-road a couple of times and got a boot full of snow for my trouble. I decided that it was easier and safer to carry on and come down the Pennine Way than to turn back and go back down the hill. Unsurprisingly there were no birds about.
It wasn't until I got to Callis Wood that there were signs of life with a flock of 17 Redwing, about 12 Long Tailed Tits and a Nuthatch. Along the canal you can always count on there being a good number of birds at the Eastwood Water Treatment Works and sure enoughthere were 14 Meadow Pipit;15 Pied Wagtail (there may have been more Mipits and Pieds but I couldn't see the whole of the settling beds); a Grey Wagtail and 31 BH Gull.
Up through Shaw Wood I heard a Nuthatch calling then saw 2 of them, along with a Treecreeper and about 6 Long Tailed Tits. Just as I was emerging from the wood the sun was shining on the frosty grass -
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