Sunday December 16

A sunny morning although it gradually clouded over from the south. A very light south-westerly breeze.

The first half of this morning's effort was rather uninspiring, the highlight being a flock of 22 Redpolls. Indeed the day reached a low point as we watched the water trickling out of the main pool through an unblocked pipe.

The Flash field was also largely devoid of birds and it seemed this would be one of our worst visits this year. Then things started to change.

I had noticed some large gulls flying west in the distance. One group in particular, which I had assumed were Lesser Black-backed Gulls, caught Dave's attention when he pointed out that one of them, the small one, was a Herring Gull. This obviously set alarm bells ringing as we realised they had to be Great Black-backed Gulls. This time I got a shot.

Great Black-backed Gulls (with Herring and Lesser)

At the time we thought they were five Geebs and a Herring, but I now think the right hand bird is a Lesser. Later on we saw more large gulls, and the final tally was 20 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 13 Herring Gulls, and four Great Black-backed Gulls.

Herring Gulls

A little further on a Little Egret flew up from a ditch on the other side of a field and landed in a tree. This was the first here since February.

Little Egret

I am guessing this is the single Little Egret which was at Arrow Valley Lake last week.

The final bit of luck was both good and bad. When there are two of you walking around you are obviously hoping and expecting that you will both see anything worthy of note. So when I spotted three drake Goosanders flying south-west just behind Stapenhill Wood, I was anxious to get Dave on them. Unfortunately they were quite low and I could only see through a cleft between two bushes. Every time I tugged Dave to try to get him into a position where he would be able to see them the birds kept disappearing behind the bush. In the end we tried running to the top of the rise, but they had gone.

I did see one in the gloom of pre-dawn on my all day bird watch here in May, but they are generally pretty scarce here. Dave's only record dates back to 2012. So it was a bittersweet moment.

Finally, the livestock on the patch has recently become more biodiverse.

baaaah