Torr Reservoir, East Cranmore - Sun 4 Dec

A drive up to north-east Somerset this afternoon. Ellie was feeling pretty exhausted so she decided to have a nap whilst I drove up to East Cranmore, halfway between Shepton Mallett and Frome and a visit to Torr Reservoir. I can't ever recall visiting the site before but it was not too hard to find and after parking the car walked out along a public bridleway towards the reservoir...and then it started to rain.
Despite the poor weather I soon found the flock of Canada Geese that I was after, that was the easy bit done I now had to locate the very small one in amongst about four hundered or so big geese. I did pick out a pair of Barnacle Geese and a slightly less authentic Bar-headed Goose. But there was no sign of the Richardson's Canada Goose...and that was what I was after!
So as the rain fell I carried up the track and viewed the reservoir proper, there were several Tufted Duck on the water and I also saw a Little Grebe, but other than gathering gulls there was little else so I retraced my steps and looked over the geese again. Finally I found my target as the Richardson's Canada Goose moved out from behind the much larger Canada Geese and eventually gave me some good scope views, but the heavy rain and distance meant my record shots were poorer than normal (if possible!):

 

So having successfully found what I was after I headed back to the car, seeing a Mistle Thrush along the way and hearing a Goldcrest call from the trees near the car. All in all a good afternoon out, even if I did get rather wet.