Friday 1 February 2013

Smewtastic

Well what a super week it's been birding wise, as you can see from the Grey Heron photo below Monday was cold with snow and freezing conditions; the weather had completely changed by Wednesday morning so we decided to make the short drive to Upper Longdon on Cannock Chase where a Great Grey Shrike has been showing on and off for most of the Month. Unfortunately very high winds on site restricted our chances and only flight views were obtained, a very showy Kestrel was great value considering the lack of views given by the Shrike. We rounded off the day by having a look at the gull roost at Doddington Lake where after scanning through for half an hour or so we managed to find a 1st winter Iceland gull which showed well at distance.

This morning (Friday) myself and Al visited Cholmondeley and amongst the usual wildfowl (Goldeneye, Tufted Duck, Wigeon, Teal, Shelduck) there was a stunning female (redhead) Smew, pictured below. With a great few days birding already under the belt, lets see what the weekend brings, a birthday lifer might not be out of the question with a Pine Grosbeak currently being searched for on Shetland.........


 Grey heron

 Kestrel

 Cormorant

Smew


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