Wednesday 1 December 2010

Wednesday 1st December

Took the afternoon of work and thought – might be good for wildfowl at Shustoke so I wrapped up warm and headed out. On arrival the snow flurries continued and after a 200 yards a Snipe flew over, that was the first I have seen for a while. Continuing round there were 17 Goosander, but most of the wildfowl were down the east end. As I carried on round I met a neighbour that I had never spoken to and we ended up talking for about 1/2 hour. I was just about to carry on when I picked up three waders flying in from the south I instantly thought Golden Plover, (brilliant never seen one here) I apologised for my rudeness and picked my bins up to see that it was actually three Grey Plover, the black auxilieries standing out (thats arm pits to most of us) they never gave any indication of landing and carried on north.

I was quite excited at this point, my neighbour confused. Anyway we left each other and I hadn’t gone 30 yards before what looked like a Meadow Pipit landed on the edge, but I had given up on that as I picked up the shape of a wader on the shoreline, this was a medium sized bulky bird which I immediately recognised as a Knot, again another new species for me for the Reservoir. I was really bubbling now, I watched the bird for 10 minutes then carried on. Then I saw the Knot flying over the Reservoir before turning and landing in the north-east corne. At this point a couple of walkers with dogs flushed the Wigeon that were feeding in the corner and I saw the Knot no more. It more than likely has relocated elsewhere on the Reservoir (find out tomorrow). I also saw yesterdays Green Sandpiper and 6 Lapwing brought todays wader total to five.

Wildfowl numbers were as follows.
17 Goosander, 152 Shoveler, 5 Gadwall, c.20 Teal, 70 Pochard, c.80 Mallard and 120 Tufted Duck.

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