A few year ticks

At the weekend, I went to Lincoln for a bit of a booze-up, so seeing as I was going out that way, I thought it'd be rude not to drop into Girton to see the White-fronted Geese and Great Northern Diver that had been reported there over the last 2 weeks. Getting to Girton, I had a wander up the track between the A1133 pit and the Sailing lake, stopping to scan from the very limited viewing spots. No diver. I bumped into Nick Crouch, and we went to look for the geese, but any geese we did see were heads down, out of the wind, so had no luck there either. Nick told me about another spot to view the roadside pit from, so I headed back to my car and had another look, and within a few minutes I had fantastic views of the diver only 50m or so out. It showed excellently, and didnt dive once while I was there, just sat there.

The next day, with a bit of a sore head, I headed back to Girton at about 2pm, and headed straight to the sheep fields north of the sailing lake, to have another look at these geese. The large flock of greylags were a lot more visible and very soon I was looking at the group of 7 White-fronted Geese, before they flew off behind a bank in the field, leaving the greylags behind. These were the first white-fronts I've seen since 2012 i think, so long overdue. The Great Northern Diver was still on the roadside pit, and a few birders were there this time round, but it was a lot more elusive, diving constantly and very mobile.

I had a quick look in at Collingham, seeing 7 Curlew and a Green Sand, but couldn't locate the red-head Smew that had been reported. After this I headed down for a quick look at HP before it got dark, bagging a Pheasant for the patch yearlist before getting out the car. Blotts was very quiet, wildfowl numbers were especially low, but there were lots of small gulls and 2 Shelduck, a nice early addition for the year, I hadn't expected these til later in the year on the patch.

Heading back to my car, I noticed a good-sized murmuration of Starlings, so headed to the reedbed in Skylarks NR for a better look and to see them go in to roost in the reeds. It was an awesome display, and I got a cheeky Buzzard and Water rail on the patch yearlist too.