One of my surprises this winter has been the regular occurrence of a flock of Goosanders on the pool behind my Dudley house. It varies from a few to numbers in the low teens daily, but they have been present almost every day, which is a huge surprise considering i have never seen anything other than Mallards and Grey Wagtail on there previously!
Today, there were 9 present.
13/02/14
A total of 5 Goosander flew past me towards the Reservoir as i walked across Mons Hill, but upon reaching the reservoir they hadn't landed, so presumably had been flushed off by the fisherman on the edges.
15/02/14
As some of you may be aware, here in Worcestershire we have had some decent flooding, in fact the worst for quite a few years, and this meant i was unable to get out on patch for a few weeks as it was underwater, so at the earliest opportunity, with the river dropping, i headed over to check out the flooding, which was fairly extensive.
Sadly, there were few birds about around the limited areas i could visit. However a TEAL was calling from within the Woodland (which should in fact mean 'flooded' woodland) where the Finch flock usually feed but this was surrounded by water and inaccessible.
Good numbers of Pied Wagtail were around the receding floodwater though, with around 30 seen, with a singe 1st winter Grey Wagtail intermixed. A 1st winter Cormorant showing characteristics of the 'Siniesis' race was present on one of the floods. The gular pouch looked about the right angle, but it was just a little to far off to be certain.
MB
2 comments:
Goosanders...in Dudley! Who'd have thought it.
Another interesting read Craig
I know! Weird! Not like there is 40+ on the other side of Dudley in Great Bridge though! haha
Rare on this side tho!
MB
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