Another glorious morning to be up on the tops with 100% blue sky and full sun on a cold W>3 at 0 degrees.
An unbelievable number of birds at Leeshaw today making me wonder why so many birds here compared to the very few at Fly Flatts yesterday.
The reason I couldn't locate the Red Necked Grebe at Lower Laithe a couple of days ago was because it has returned to Leeshaw, near enough 1 month from its first arrival here.
Another bonus this morning was a female Gadwall which nearly slipped through the net for a hybrid Mallard until I got the scope on it revealing its grey head, dark bill with orange stripes down the sides and a well mottled plumage with white inner wing feathers. I had a male at this site in Nov 2023 but a rare sighing for this area.
A male goosander was on the water with 3 Cormorant and several gulls whilst surrounding fields were inundated with geese and gulls.
Wind from the east tomorrow means back to the cloud with a ton of mist and fog. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.
LEESHAW
1 Red Necked Grebe
1 f Gadwall
1 m Goosander
3 Cormorant
1 PF Goose
c 300 Greylag
c 200 Canada
12 Mallard
14 Lapwing
c 300 BH gull
c 50 Common gull
28 Herring gull
1 LBB gull
plus usual sp.
BS