...and up went the pits....!! Not literally....just bird-wise....
An exciting day indeed.....not only a new species for the pits for me but a bird that I didn't think I would be seeing this winter, with so few being reported and then not many people seeing them...
SMEW....!!....at Whetsted Gravel Pits.....heres the usual standard of photos...
...female....stretching.....
....constantly together...
....SMEWWWWWWW.....
0915 - 1130 cool to warm, mist clearing to sun, E f1-2
Hard to top Smew on site today....thought other birds did demand a right good looking at....!
Obviously the cold-ish weather continues, though today it was warming quickly and the thaw has started....but still plenty of snow about....
South-eastern fields....usually a good spot for Buzzards
So a meander about produced some birds....also meandering about....
....Moorhen....?....
Up on North Field a Skylark was braving it and giving singing a go....there was also a fox present nosing around in the field...more Skylark were singing in the south fields.
Its amazing what a bit of sunshine and slight increase in warmth can do....Blue Tits, Great Tits, Nuthatch, Chaffinches, Song Thrush....all singing, yet two days ago the site was silent.
I was beginning to think Chiffchaffs might be stalled, but if this continues maybe they will still come in on time.
North Field
Still plenty of ice on the pits and still plenty of gulls standing around on it....
Black-headed Gulls to the left, a
solitary Common Gull to the right
Common Gull
The Greylag and Canada Geese were, as usual with geese, jittery....and the even more jittery Shoveler flock went up.....80+ of them...here are a few coming back...
Shovelers
Other ducks around included 75 Teal, a new record for the site, just a few weeks ago there were 44.....the 2 female Goldeneye were still present on Island Pit but the male was missing.
A Snipe was flushed out of one of the ditches at the eastern end of the site.
Kestrel
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