Saturday 21 November 2009

21st November 2009

I had a good feeling something good might be at the lakes this morning and, sure enough, there were 2 Goldeneyes at Windmill Pool! These were a lifer and I wanted to quickly age them before I had to leave. Both were "brownheads" and I'm pretty sure the one was a female because of some yellow on the bill, but I couldn't see the other's bill well as it was facing towards me so I looked in my book for other features to check whilst waiting for it to turn. That was a mistake, because after spending less than 30 seconds in the book, I looked back at where the ducks had been and they'd vanished. Sadly I was only able to spend 20 minutes at the lakes and didn't notice the Goldeneyes straight away because a fisherman was near my favourite observation spot at the causeway. There was no time to visit Terry's Pool, and the only other bird of note was the White-cheeked Pintail at Engine Pool.

From Earlswood, my mom dropped me off at Blythe Valley CP, where I joined the nestbox project group in cleaning, numbering and relocating some of the nestboxes, which I found enjoyable despite the somewhat poor weather. Didn't have many opportunities to use my bins, but I noted 10+ Tufted Ducks and 5 Mute Swans there. According to one of the log books, a Pochard was there earlier this month on the 7th and 8th.

M.P. Griffiths

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