Durham Bird Club's Castle Lake Nature Reserve

Monday 2 February 2015

Bean And Gone Goose

Monday 2nd February 2015

A cold day and once again most areas of water were frozen, however some good birds were seen, todays sightings from John Olley and myself.

Castle Lake in the morning produced 1 Ruff, 15 Redshank, 130 Curlew, 400 Golden Plover, 1300 Lapwing, 50 Fieldfare, 5 Grey Partridge, 2 Oystercatcher, 10 Tree Sparrow and 2 Shelduck.
In the afternoon a single Tundra Bean Goose was found in the company of 40 Greylag Geese and 107 Canada Geese in the field between Castle Lake and the A1 Flashes, pictured below.

It briefly relocated to the field immediately to the southeast of Castle Lake, pictured, before flying off towards Low Hardwick with some Greylag's just after 2pm.

Low Hardwick - 1 Grey Heron, 4 Meadow Pipit's one of which nearly became Sparrowhawk fodder, 1 Kestrel, 2 Woodcock flushed, possibly the same bird twice, 1 Mistle Thrush overflew, 2 Song Thrush, 2 Tree Sparrow back on territory and the highlight, a pair of Stonechat, the first time I've seen this species here in the winter and in the exact same spot as a pair seen back in October last year.
 
Typical Stonechat views.

Fishburn Lake - 1 Common Buzzard, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 1 Goldcrest and a rare sighting of a Nuthatch, February is the month when birds venture further away from the Hardwick Hall stronghold.

River Stell - 10 Tufted Duck (9 females), 1 Little Grebe and 4 Long-tailed Tits overflew.

And finally, for a change, a Lapwing photo.

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