Sutton Bingham - Sun 30 Jan

I'd made a couple of brief visits over the last few days, adding Great Black-backed Gull and Peregrine on Thursday 27 January (and three Mediterranean Gulls were seen...though not a year tick) and then Collared Dove and Pheasant yesterday, but today was pretty good...by Sutton Bingham standards anyway!

There was not a lot in the north-east corner this afternoon, just twenty or so Wigeon (down from 201 yesterday afternoon), but that was almost certainly due to the sailing activity. However, driving round to the northern causeway I found a smart drake Gadwall, always a nice bird to see. A quick check of the southern end produced nothing of note so back to the northern causeway with the intention of checking gulls. Instead I found a drake Garganey on West Pool, presumably the bird that has wintered in the area in previous years. It was with a few Mallards and the drake Gadwall had joined them, surprisingly a Little Grebe was also present. So three decent year ticks in a matter of minutes. Unfortunately the light was pretty poor and the duck were somewhat distance but I still grabbed a couple of record shots.

I didn't really manage as much time on patch as I would have liked this month, mainly due to other demands on my time, but a good visit to round it off.

Sutton Bingham year list for 2022 now at 63 species.