Divers and swans

Last weekend a nice Great Northern Diver paid a visit to Kilvington Lakes, only around 20 mins from my house so I thought I'd pop down last Saturday to go see it, and failed. I had until lunchtime to have a look there and walk around my patch too, so I felt rushed, so left kilvington after only scanning the lakes briefly. I realised my mistake when only an hour later it was reported as present, and everyone started to rush to go see it. Unfortunately for me it was too late and I didn't have time to go back. Luckily it stayed and I went on Sunday to have a look and got excellent views as it dived, doing clockwise laps round the lake. GND is a bird I've wanted to see for ages, shame it wasn't at HP, but a tick nonetheless!

My morning at the patch was pretty good, with 5 new birds for the year - Jay, Water Rail, Reed Bunt, Meadow Pipit and finally a Smew, a redhead which was on the usual 'works pond'.
  Otherwise on site it was a bit busier than recent times, with 30-odd Pochard and a few more Wigeon about too, and some Shoveler. There doesn't seem to be many flocks of birds about though, finches seem to be thin on the ground as do tit-flocks. I also failed to flush any snipe, although with there being a lot of standing water about, they are a bit spoilt for choice.

This weekend I planned to go out to some sites around the county, as I've now decided to keep a county year-list, as it seems to be going reasonably well. There's been some good birds around so I planned a trip beginning at Rufford, to try for Hawfinch (still never seen one), Lesserpecker and some other bits, before nipping into Eakring to bag a Garganey, and finishing at Besthorpe to grab me some yellow-billed swans and maybe some waders.

It started quite badly, there were plenty of people looking for Hawfinch and none seemed to be showing while I was there. I tried for a while for Lesserpecker in its favoured spot, before wandering round the woods to try my luck in there. It didn't happen, but I did see a few Marsh Tits coming to some seed and managed one semi-decent pic. I also ticked off Nuthatch for the year.

Marsh Tit, Rufford

I was just going back to try one last time for the Hawfinch, when I checked birdguides and realised a Garganey had been seen yesterday at Rufford, so in an attempt to save a trip to Eakring I had a good sniff around the lake. Unfortunately all there was were mallards and tufties, and a small group of Goosander. I therefore tried at Eakring, and after a while of seeing nothing but Mallard, I gave up. Both have since been reported at both sites. Pah!

Besthorpe was good, I haven't been for ages and there was quite a bit about. On Mons Pool were 3 Redshank and a Green Sandpiper, as well as about 15 Shelduck. I was really hoping for a Pintail, but sadly none were about, but there were good numbers of teal around the whole lake, definitely 150+ I'd say.

Whoopers and Bewicks Swans, Besthorpe

I got good views of the Whooper Swans and Bewick's Swans which have been on site for a while now, giving me 2 nice easy year ticks. Been ages since I've seen a Bewicks too so I was happy with that. I finished with a walk around the north end of the site but might as well have not bothered as I saw hardly anything! Not a bad day, but with only 4 new birds for the year, I feel it could have gone better, but it was nice to get to some places I don't visit often.