A big thank you to Jonathon Farooqi for the tip-off that it was there.
My second patch list addition of the year following September's fantastic red-footed falcon. This takes the patch list up to 238.
Jonathon had also found a couple of water pipits on the Budge fields, they were joined by a third for a while. These are the first water pipits I have had on the patch in eight years, the last ones being in front of the Oddie hide and along the haul road.
The dowitcher and water pipits take my year list up to 161 species. Not a disaster, but not great.
This snip from my spreadsheet shows the last eight years totals from the patch. Maybe 2013 and 2014 were just exceptional years...
So what did I miss?
The obvious omissions from this years list include
Salvonian Grebe - six out of the last eight years
Grey Plover - 5/8
Bonxie - 7/8 (the first year I not recorded bonxie!)
Redstart and Pied Fly - 4/8
Garden warbler - 6/8
Lesser whitethroat - 6/8
Bullfinch - 5/8
Also of note today was an odd duck that I still can't make my mind up about. It was with the pochards and looked like an Aythya. At first I thought it might have some shoveler in it, as the head was green and the bill looked long and spatula shaped. The more I looked at it, the more I ruled out shoveler - although the bill was very long and flatish
The head shape was right for scaup and the colour looked good. The bird seemed to show some reddish brown on the front and under the tail - in certain light. I still think it is a hybrid - probably scaup x pochard - but it could be a first winter drake scaup in moult. I'll need to have a better look.
Well, that's it from me for 2016. Not sure when I'll get back to the patch, but when I do, I hope that dowitcher is there.
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