Sunday 10 February 2013

Saturday 9th February 2013

WeBs duck count this weekend, and so for the sixth consecutive weekend, we stayed local. We are due to leave the county soon though.

On Wednesday, I managed to pop down to Gailey to see the adult White-fronted Geese, a useful addition to my Gailey list which now stands at 14 species


The White-fronts at Gailey - showing distantly in a field on a very windy day

On Friday afternoon, we headed to Branston GP's to see if we could relocate the possible BEAN GOOSE. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the Greylag Goose flock, but we did stumble across these two Barnacle Geese.

And so onto Saturday. Same old places visited again. Not a lot doing, but the first sign of spring with my first Oystercatcher of the year.

I also managed to finally catch up with the three Little Egrets today

My pulse slightly increased when I spotted a Scaup like duck among the Tufted Ducks. I then realised it was the same bird as MY had seen in January at Croxall.



A Tufted x Pochard hybrid maybe?

Finally, there is a Slavonian Grebe at Astbury Mere in Congleton at the moment. This is just up the road from Westport, and there has been a transfer of duck between the two sites before. So a message to all those long lens boys currently camped out up there on a daily basis - get closer please, you know you want to!

Slavonian Grebe