Monday, November 30, 2020

Responsible Birding Diary: Saturday 28.11.20

 

Deeping Lakes LWT produced the goods for me today. At first, there was not much to report, except the regular Pink-footed Goose on the East Pit. And, as the number of visitors (not birdwatchers, just visitors) to the reserve seemed very high, I decided to skip looking for the Long-eared Owls, cut my losses and leave.

As it happens, as I was leaving my friend Matt Fitzgerald was arriving. So, we parked and chewed the fat a wee bit, moaning about this and that. I said to Fitz, "I just want to see a Merlin!". And that very second, a small raptor wen whizzing over the nearby River Welland. It was a Merlin! Perfectly on time. That is the last of the 'core' birds for my year list, which is now on 187 species (pretty respectable) for the PBC area.

Fitz and I decided to head for a site in the Maey area to see if there were any jack Snipes around, this winter. We encountered 2 Jackos plus 3 Snipes at the site. Jack Snipes are just wonderful little waders. It is amazing to think that there are apparently 100,000 of them wintering in the UK, as they are so elusive!

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