Snow birding

Yesterday (26/01) morning I had walk through the snow at Ditchford GP in the hope Of finding some white-winged Gulls and anything else that might be around.

There were plenty of Gulls about, however no Glaucous or Iceland. There was however a smart looking 1st-winter Caspian Gull showing well in the sunshine of the Viaduct Pit.

Also around were 2 Scaup (1st winter drake and female) and what was presumably a drake Aythya hybrid resembling a Lesser Scaup on the ski pit. I couldn't quite get a good enough view of the presumed hybrid due to the light but I would guess it's the same bird that was in the area a week earlier.

Next I headed for Harrington Airfield. I just missed out on a flyover Snow Bunting and after a good search I failed to re-locate it. I did manage to see 2 Grey Partridges, a flock of around 50 Skylark, a Barn Owl and at least 4 Brambling on the seed put out on the concrete track. Afterwards a quick look around Blueberry Farm, Maidwell failed to locate anything of note.

This afternoon, (27/01) I spent a couple of hours at Boddington Resevoir. There wasn't too much to get excited about. I did though see my first Kingfisher of the year, showing amazingly well for at least 10 minutes.12 Goosander were also in the centre of the resevoir.