This morning's weather was a bit blaaah. Too cloudy for insect hunting, too westerly to encourage any thoughts of rarities, and too windy for looking for passerines or visible migration. I struggled for motivation, so decided to go to Wootton Pool just because I hadn't been there for a while.
I don't like the place because its so hard to view, but this morning it punched well above its weight. I had barely got out of the car when I noticed two geese approaching. I got on the first one and was astonished to see it was a Pink-footed Goose. This species seems to be following me around recently. The other goose was probably a Greylag, and the Pink-foot started calling and banked away from its pal to make another circuit of the field. As I finally got my camera out, it disappeared behind the trees bordering the pool.
I hurried to the only place it is possible to see any water, but failed to relocate it. Instead I counted seven Mute Swans, 32 Mallard, a Tufted Duck, two Little Grebes, seven Great Crested Grebes, and nine Coot. I can't rule out the possibility that the goose was there somewhere, but the viewing options are awful.
Eventually I wandered to the north of the pool and found a flock of 187 Linnets and eight Greenfinches feeding in the stubble. Another attempt to view the pool added nothing, but the next field had a few gulls on it including a first-winter Common Gull, only the second I've seen locally this year.
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| Common Gull with BHGs |
I decided to drive to the weir because sometimes geese build up there. This produced no geese but some bonus fly-overs, a Red Kite and a Little Egret.
For the next hour I took a circuitous route home, vaguely looking for fields of cattle (there was a Cattle Egret at Salford Priors Gravel Pit on Sunday). Needless to say I didn't add to my Egret list, but I did stop at the big field at Middletown where I was pleased to discover 88 Golden Plovers.
So even the most unpromising of days can produce the goods.
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