Sutton Bingham - Wed 1 Feb

A fairly quiet visit today, though an adult Great Black-backed Gull on West Pool was somewhat of a surprise.

 

Duck numbers have dropped off quite a bit, probably due to the higher water levels and local floods causing them to disperse after the recent heavy rain. Just twenty-eight Wigeon, a dozen Teal and four Tufted Duck counted today.

Sutton Bingham - Sun 29 Jan

A quick visit prior to 8am today and it was actually pretty quiet, probably due partly to the milder weather and partly because of the recent rain which had raised the already high water levels. That being said there were still around fifty Wigeon on site and at least twenty Teal (though I am sure there were plenty of these tucked away out of site). A single Mute Swan was off the dam but most of the interest was around West Pool where two male Reed Bunting were seen and my first Kingfisher of the year put in a brief appearance. Finally three Meadow Pipits were feeding amongst a few Redwing in the field next to West Pool.

Sutton Bingham - Wed 25 Jan

After the recent run of cold weather much of the reservoir has become covered with ice, this meant that today most of the birds were located at the southern end in one place where there was open water. This made counting the gathered wildfowl slightly easier than normal and I ended up with totals of 193 Teal, 190 Canada Geese, seventy-seven Mallard and sixty-nine Wigeon. For a bit of variety I also found three Shoveler (a drake, duck and first-winter drake), and the Barnacle Goose also turned up again.

Finally on the duck front, two drake Tufted Duck were present off the dam. The only other sightings of note this afternoon were of two fly-over Meadow Pipits and ten Common Gulls resting on a frozen West Pool.

Sutton Bingham - Sun 22 Jan

A quick early morning visit before breakfast produced a female Goldeneye among a flock of twenty-one Tufted Duck off the dam. This is only my fourth ever record of Goldeneye at Sutton Bingham, and the second this month. Both birds have been female, so I suppose it is possible that it is the same bird.
Returning in the afternoon, there was nothing at the northern end of the reservoir, the sailing had moved everything to the southern end. Much of the ice that had covered the southern end of the reservoir had cleared over the course of the morning, and the Tufted Duck flock had moved down with an extra couple of birds bringing the total up to twenty-three, but no sign of this morning's Goldeneye. Wigeon numbered117 birds and 73 Teal ere counted along with forty Mallard, though no other duck species had turned up. Ten Meadow Pipits were seen near the Canoe Club and in failing light I found a Little Grebe on West Pool.
Sutton Bingham year list 2017 now at 64 species.

Sutton Bingham - Sat 21 Jan

A decent couple of hours at the reservoir this morning with my main objective being to try and find Woodcock and Jack Snipe on the patch, I failed miserably with both despite a lot of hard work. Nevertheless it was a great morning out.
A nice large flock of twenty-nine Tufted Duck were off the dam and the Wigeon flock was grazing at the northern end too, with around eighty birds being present.

I walked down towards the southern end of the reservoir and counted two hundred Teal and over seventy Mallard. Not much of note in the way of smaller birds, though a few Redwing and a couple of Treecreepers were seen.
As I returned to the car a nice flock of 137 Canada Geese had gathered at the Sailing Club and the Barnacle Goose was back amongst them after going missing for several days. Finally, I added a bird to the 2017 year list, with a very smart Green Woodpecker being seen near the Fishing Lodge.

Sutton Bingham - Fri 20 Jan

A quick visit after work today, and I quickly checked out the southern end as I'd had a text telling me a Little Grebe was present...except it wasn't by the time I got there! There were lots of Teal, the vast majority of which were tucked up out of clear sight, so I could only count around thirty but could hear loads more. Also present this evening a flock of seventy-five Wigeon and forty Mallard whilst near the Canoe Club it was nice to see a group of ten Tufted Duck.

Sutton Bingham - Wed 18 Jan

Despite laving work late, getting stuck in traffic and having to nip home to do a few chores I still managed about ninety minutes at the reservoir this afternoon.
Starting at the northern causeway there was nothing of note so I popped on down to the southern end where I had a very brief glimpse of the Otter again as well as twenty Teal, but nothing else to pique my interest so I drove round to the Fishing Lodge.
Whilst chatting to the warden I scanned the geese grazing nearby and found an Egyptian Goose! This was great to see especially as I missed the last two records at Sutton Bingham, both of which were brief. I was able to watch this bird for quite some time as it fed with the Canada Geese and Wigeon. The only down side was I was viewing it straight in to the light, but the quality record photos are good enough to see what it is!

 

I then drove back round to the northern causeway again and checked out West Pool. I found a Stonechat which was pretty mobile and difficult to pin down. If it was the bird that was present around Christmas time it's done a good job of staying out of site so far this year. I also flushed thirteen Snipe and a Meadow Pipit flew over. A third-winter Yellow-legged Gull drifted in from the west and circled West Pool a couple of times and finally, the Egyptian Goose flew off to the west at around 3.15pm and to the best of my knowledge was not seen again.