20th December

The recent rain has brought some local flooding so I went down to the river yesterday. There was a handful of Curlew, Little Egret, a dense flock of around 300 Fieldfares and now three Oystercatchers…

On the river itself a single Goosander, seven Mallard and a Little Grebe but as I scanned the further floodwater I picked up a different looking bird. It was an Egyptian Goose. My first sighting in the parish. Not a great picture at distance and in the early morning light but a nice pre-Christmas bonus… 

As I was watching this bird a flock of around 200 Lapwings flickered over, much the biggest flock I have seen in a very poor year for the species…

This morning I walked with Frank down past the flooded bottom fields and on to Langlands. Some quite extensive areas of floodwater…

but surprisingly quiet for birds with only a dozen Mallard together with a hundred+ gulls, mainly Black-headed and Herring but a little knot of about 20 Common Gulls amongst them. Pick of the birds though was a cracking Woodcock which flew over our heads and landed in a small shelter belt. Surprisingly this was my first sighting of the year. Also here we heard a distant (unseen) skein of Pinkfeet and saw four Roe Deer, a Fox and a couple of hares.  

I also received an email from a local who had seen a Great White Egret on floodwater near the Wiske. Unfortunately it was literally a few feet outside the village boundary so I can’t legitimately add it to the parish list but it’s surely only a matter of time…

Just a quick postscript, popped out just now to get a couple of logs for the fire and a loudly calling Wigeon flock, invisible in the dark, has just flown low over the garden. Presumably heading down on to the floods in the Bottom Fields.