Sutton Bingham - Fri 2 Mar

Heavy snow and impassable roads (unless you have a 4x4...which I don't) meant that I had an hour long hike through snow carrying my 'scope to get any birding done at the reservoir today, but I did it and it was a good decision with some good birds and some really great birds!
Arriving at the northern causeway, West Pool had a few duck with the pick being a drake Pintail and a drake Shoveler.

Three Tufted Duck and eight Teal were also present along with a Coot. A couple of Snipe and a Lapwing were also noted.
I then walked round to the opposite side of the reservoir, checking the outfall stream where another Snipe and a further Teal were noted before I walked up to the dam.
Scanning across the reservoir there were already a good number of gulls gathering, but the immediate highlight was a Golden Plover that flew in and landed on the dam. Unfortunately it flew before I had a chance to get a photo. Overhead three Skylark flew through whilst on the water another pair of Teal and around thirty Wigeon were present.
Checking the gathering gulls I relocated the first-winter Iceland Gull that I had found last Sunday and a third calendar year Great Black-backed Gull was also present amongst the expected species. Apologies for this shocking photo of the Iceland Gull, but couldn't resist!

As if all that wasn't good enough a Buzzard flew over the far bank and flushed a small wader. It soon pitched down again and revealed itself to be a Sanderling, a real rarity for Sutton Bingham and a completely unexpected find.
So the long, hard walk was well worth it, though I was shattered by the time I got back home. Five new species for the patch year list though and a good bit of exercise.
Sutton Bingham year list 2018 now at 75 species.