Sutton Bingham - Sun 31 Oct

A planned day out birding with my mates was postponed due to illness, injury and a dreadful weather forecast so I ended up at Sutton Bingham for a couple of hours early afternoon instead. The north-east corner held 136 Canada Geese and around fifty Wigeon but nothing else on the water. However, a late Common Sandpiper was a most surprising find.

However, a small bird flitting around some nearby buildings caught my attention and soon I was treated to some wonderful views of a Black Redstart...just my third patch sighting.

After watching the Black Redstart for a while I moved on to explore other areas of the reservoir but to be honest with access still closed due to the work going on it was not easy. A few Redwings were around the church whilst singles of Raven and Stock Dove flew over. Checking an adjacent field I noted around thirty Linnet and a dozen Chaffinch before they were all spooked by a Sparrowhawk. So not a bad end to a month where I missed two patch lifers.

Sutton Bingham year list for 2021 now at 113 species.