Tuesday 8th January 2013

Birds seen today included the following;

Castle Lake - 4 Shelduck, 1 pair Pintail, 16 Pochard, 3f Goldeneye, a pair of Goosander flew past and landed on the southern A1 flashes, 2 Grey Partridge, 2 Great Crested Grebe, c400 Lapwing, 75 Curlew, 19 Redshank and a Green Sandpiper.

Low Hardwick - 20 Snipe flew over, 1 Jay, 1 Kestrel and 6 Crossbill flew over heading south towards Hardwick Park at 11:00.

Fishburn Lake - 20 Gadwall, 11 Tufted Duck, 2 Mute Swan, 1 Grey Heron, 12 Redwing over, 1 Treecreeper and 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker.

A few pictures from today;

Grey Heron at Fishburn Lake, one of at least five in the general area today.

Some of the Island Farm seed-crop flock, mostly Goldfinch with a few Reed Bunting, Yellowhammer and Tree Sparrow.

A second Great Crested Grebe has returned to Castle Lake.

It doesn't take long for Shelduck numbers to build-up in early January.

Finally today's sighting of Crossbill was a long-awaited patch tick for myself after 301 visits (!) since April 2007 (that White Stork has a lot to answer for!!). Sightings are fairly regular at Hardwick Hall and occaisionally occur at Ferryhill Carrs but before today I'd never managed to be in the right place at the right time to see them in the Bishop Middleham area.
BM patch list #155 Crossbill.