I was back in the northeast and as I drove to my vantage point (VP) just the other side of the dunes I noticed that the Brent Goose was still feeding on the roadside verge.
Brent Goose
It was quieter than last time out in the estuary, and from a sea-duck perspective all I had was three male Eiders and a male Goldeneye.
Eider
As I looked upstream I had brief views of a Slavonian Grebe before it dived. After I had finished at this VP I was moving to another closer to where the Slav was. A little later on, I arrived at my second VP and low and behold the Slav had moved and was closer to my original VP! "Never mind" I thought, and I marked on my maps the 88 Pink-footed Geese that flew over, 20 Curlews and a couple of Rock Pipits. Then the Slav Grebe surfaced no more than ten metres in front of me and I didn't have time to get my bins to my eyes, never mind pick up my camera, before it dived again never to be seen again that morning.
The view from one of my VPs
I had a very pleasant morning yesterday, leading a farmland bird identification walk in south Cheshire for some former colleagues. The idea behind the event was to help some farmers with some bird identification so that they would feel more confident taking part in the Big Farmland Bird Count in ten days time.
The weather was glorious for a change and we managed see species such as Stock Dove, Buzzard, Pink-footed Goose, Pintail, Skylark, Redwing, Fieldfare, Song Thrush, Chaffinch, House Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, Reed Bunting and Yellowhammer. So a good smattering of farmland birds, with some very pleasant company! You can find a link to a lovely report on the event by CLICKING HERE.
The weather these past few days has been pretty awful and sadly it has thwarted attempts to get out ringing. Looking at the forecast over the coming week it doesn't look much better, but as always I am ever hopeful that it might change. I'll keep you posted.
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