Sutton Bingham - Sun 24 Nov

A very brief visit just before dark to check the gull roost produced a third calendar year Yellow-legged Gull, but nothing more exciting than that.

Sutton Bingham - Thu 21 Nov

Arriving at the reservoir early afternoon I lasted less than an hour as the weather steadily deteriorated. During that time all I could find were a flock of one hundred Wigeon and a couple of Teal, a Kingfisher and a somewhat unseasonal Little Egret, the latter being on West Pool before relocating to the Canoe Club.

Sutton Bingham - Sun 17 Nov

A late afternoon visit to check the gull roost produced three first-winter Mediterranean Gull but nothing any scarcer. The vast majority of the gulls present were Black-headed Gull and Herring Gull with a scattering of Lesser Black-backed Gull and Common Gull.
The only other birds of note were a single female Tufted Duck, a total of eighty-six Wigeon and a Kingfisher. Six Teal were seen yesterday lunchtime.

Sutton Bingham - Thu 14 Nov

A couple of hours at the reservoir this afternoon started off fairly well with a flock of fifty-six Lapwing in flight over the north of the reservoir and a flock of twenty-one Wigeon were off the dam.
I then had a walk up to the car park and back where a few Redwing and Fieldfare were noted but very little else so I headed down to Cotton Bridge to see if there was anything much happening down there. As it happened it was a good call as I counted ten Snipe and had a Water Rail calling, pretty much in the area I was hoping to find one and another addition to the patch year list. A couple of Teal were also present.
Other bits and bobs this afternoon included a couple of Linnet, a pair of Bullfinch and a Meadow Pipit. There was a great gull roost gathering but alas I did not have time to scan them to see if anything out of the ordinary may have been lurking.
Sutton Bingham year list 2019 now at 114 species.

Sutton Bingham - Sun 10 Nov

A late afternoon visit just before dark was somewhat profitable with a small group of ten Meadow Pipit in fields just south of the entrance to the Fishing Lodge, interestingly enough one looked noticeably larger than the others through the 'scope, but when I tried to get nearer I was unable to relocate the bird...but it looked interesting!
I then checked out the north-eastern corner where a redhead Goosander was up on the bank with a small number of Wigeon and around a hundred Canada Goose. Unfortunately the light was dire, it was getting dark after all, but here's a photo of the Goosander anyway!

The gathering gulls contained a couple of Common Gulls and an adult Yellow-legged Gull but I failed to find anything else amongst the couple of thousand gulls present. A Kingfisher was the only other bird of note this evening.

Sutton Bingham - Thu 7 Nov

My first "proper" visit to the reservoir for a couple of weeks this afternoon and it was pretty quiet all in all. That being said, two redhead Goosander flew through low over the water heading north and were a very welcome addition to the patch year list.
A good look around the car park and Canoe Club failed to turn up anything other than a Goldcrest whilst overhead a single Skylark flew east and a small flock of around twenty Meadow Pipit were over fields behind the Canoe Club, where they had been flushed by a Sparrowhawk.
On the water there were around thirty Wigeon and eighty Canada Geese in the north-eastern corner, and despite a good search through the gathering gulls I failed to find anything out of the ordinary, though I did register my first Common Gull of the winter.
A few winter thrushes this afternoon, with seven or so Fieldfare and around twenty Redwing seen in flight.
Sutton Bingham year list 2019 now at 113 species.