Sutton Bingham - Thu 23 Jul

I got a message early morning from Bob Buckler telling me of a Coot at the southern end of the reservoir, he had seen two off the Sailing Cub earlier in the week (which I didn't see!) so this was a much needed year tick as this is a really hard bird to get at Sutton Bingham nowadays. After arriving on site at 8.30am it took me over an hour to finally locate it!

It may only be a Coot but it was my one hundredth species for Sutton Bingham this year. After popping back home quickly I was back to the reservoir by 10am for a family walk, this time the Coot showed immediately! A total of six Common Sandpipers were also at the southern end.
As I headed home for a second time I made a quick stop at the northern causeway where I found a juvenile Little Grebe, another year tick and another bird that is getting harder to find on patch.

I've no idea where this bird would have been hatched, but it certainly wasn't here. Checking West Pool there were a few Little Egrets at the back of the pool, and quickly scanning with my 'scope I was stunned to find a Cattle Egret, a Sutton Bingham life tick.

A quick return visit late afternoon and the Cattle Egret had moved closer to the road, but behind a tree!

An absolutely belter of a day on patch, three additions to the year list one of which being a patch tick. It does not get much better than that!
Sutton Bingham year list for 2020 now at 102 species.