Not a day for travelling given conditions at the start were poor and then got increasingly worse. Grey, misty, rain resulted in poor visibility at various times. Beyond Aviemore and the Cairngorms conditions improved somewhat and provided views of the surrounding hills. I couldn't help but focus on the sheer extent of available moorland I was travelling through and how this makes the reduced national population figures of raptors an even greater travesty and a challenge which we should all continue to pursue. The more the problem is contemplated the more depressing the situation becomes, which is precisely the mood I ended up in well previous to Perth! Perversely, weather conditions deteriorated so much that all such deliberations had to be put aside as heavy rain and nil visibility caused everyone to proceed very slowly with headlights full on! It was like a late November afternoon plus pouring rain! I must have driven through the whole weather front as it wasn't until Newcastle that things improved. Watching out for birds was out of the question!!
Finally I reached Doncaster and made an overnight stop, bringing to an end a day I'd prefer to forget! Previous ideas of having some relaxing birding somewhere locally were set aside in favour of sleep!!
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