I'd only intended to spend a quick hour at Draycote Water this morning but having first bumped into Bob Lee and Geoff Hood, followed later by Bob Hazell I didn't get away until shortly after 2pm. An initial walk to Farborough Spit yielded many
Tufted Duck,
Little and Great Crested Grebe, plus a count of (16)
Wigeon. Along the bank (6)
Meadow Pipit and small numbers of
Redwing and
Fieldfare in the hawthorn below, these along with
Skylark,
Siskin and
Lesser Redpoll over.
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| Great Norther Diver showing well along Hensborough Bank. |
Having tracked back to the centre I decided to continue on-wards and from here the birding was excellent, with at least three
Great Northern Divers (@bobhazell), although I only managed two personally. Both mine seen along Hensborough Bank and Rainbow Corner. There were around a dozen or so
Goosander and (5)
Pochard were among the many
Tufted Duck huddled in at Rainbow.
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| Scaup having a major preen! |
The feeders had plenty of
Tree Sparrows attending and in the field just to the rear, where the crop remains at least (30)
Yellowhammers, along with
Reed Bunting and
Linnet. The
Scaup was located pretty close in along Draycote Bank, where we met up with Bob Hazell.
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| Goosander - Plenty to be found today! |
An about turn and as we headed back to the car park more
Goosander and a
♀Pintail was near the inlet. More views of
Great Northern Diver ended a nice outing!
