A visit late in the afternoon today after rain for most of the day had kept me indoors (I had attempted a visit late morning but ended up staying in the car and seeing nothing!). Starting with a walk around the southern end of the reservoir I could hear a few Teal calling and about half a dozen were present. A very smart male Mandarin Duck swam between the trees in the "flooded forest" area. Eight Wigeon took to the air and were later seen settled off the dam and completing the wildfowl present, a pair of Gadwall were also seen.
There were loads of Woodpigeons seen today so I was not overly surprised to locate a single Stock Dove, another new tick for the SBR year list, and I'm sure it was the presence of all the pigeons that attracted a Peregrine which alighted on one of the pylons. The fourth SBR year tick came in the form of a Raven that passed over. A walk along the water's edge flushed just a single Snipe so I drove up to the northern end of the reservoir to see if any gulls dropped in.
At least 250 Common Gulls passed through but failed to settle and other gulls present were just Black-headed Gulls and Herring Gulls...nothing else tonight. It was getting too dark to worry about checking the car park so I didn't bother but good numbers of Redwings passed overhead along with just three Fieldfares and the Pied Wagtail roost attracted at least two hundred birds again.
Sutton Bingham year list for 2014 now at 58 species.
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