Monday 14 October 2013

Seeing Red

11th October - a strong NE/E wind was blowing so I spent a couple of hours watching for new arrivals and flyovers hoping for an interesting seabird - Gannets, Skuas, Kittiwakes and Little Gulls were being reported from many inland sites.  As is usually the case, none of these ever arrived, but there was a strong passage of Redwings - I counted 465birds, mainly in flocks of 20-50 birds, all heading W to NW.  With these, just a single Fieldfare.  Other passage birds included 4 Skylarks and a single Reed Bunting.  On the lake itself, usual fare, including the regular adult GBB Gull.

At 2pm, I received news via the local website that 2 Red-crested Pochards had flown in, landed briefly and then flown off back towards the river - typical, I thought, after spending all that time in the morning with no rewarding year ticks.  Fortunately, Alan S was on the case and relocated the birds in the NE corner a short while later, so they must have flown back in again.  So I was able to pop back down and get my year tick, a get-back, having missed a male back in February.  The birds were an adult and 1st winter male, the 1st winter retaining its juvenile dark bill and just beginning to attain its golden hood.  It was late afternoon and rather dark by this time, so I struggled to get a record with any sort of focus, but here's one 'just for the record':


These birds put me on 125 for the year, which equals my first attempt total for last year.  I still have the odd 'easy' bird to get, including Golden Plover, which should start flying over soon, but have probably missed any chance of getting a Greenshank.  These are normally very regular here, so an unexpected miss, pretty much all the records this year have been flyovers, with none lingering at all.

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