Some new arrivals

12th October - a lovely sunny day, although the NE breeze was a bit cutting.  I was very happy with the two year ticks that arrived on patch today.  The first of these was a flock of three Pintail that flew in from the west whilst I was watching from the southern bank.  They pitched down on the east side of  the lake and then made their way to the mouth of the works bay where they began up ending with a few Canada Geese.  I always find it a bit odd when different duck turn up and seemingly ignore the numbers of other duck present, especially Teal, Wigeon and Shoveler at the moment, and go and do their own thing.  I managed a distant record shot shortly after they had pitched down:

Pintail are about annual, with the odd bird or two turning up from autumn and through the winter.  However, we have been a bit spoilt in recent winters, as the wet conditions have made the patch more to their liking and flocks into double figures have stayed around for some time - not last winter though - these three being the first of the year.

The next year tick was one that I alluded to recently and thought might bypass me this year.  Well it wasn't to be, as I found a nice Stonechat fly catching in the sun along the path by the athletics track.  In fact, it was within a few yards of where the gropper was last month.  It had found a hawthorn to its liking and kept coming back to the same perch.

Front view

 

Back view

 

A bit further along this path, there are always Green Woodpeckers clinging to the wooden fence posts of a fence that runs into a weedy field.  Today I decided to snap a record of a female bird.