Banana Billed River Monster......Monday 30th January 2017.

Due to being at work and not being able to get over,today i was going to travel down to Kirkstead Bridge near Woodhall Spa and visit the superb White-billed Diver that has amazingly been residing on the River Witham there.
 When i set off from home,it was pretty misty and i thought i will be lucky to see the river,never mind the Diver and my memory drifted back to the 1996 bird which was taken into care before i arrived after swallowing a Pike lure.
 It is absolutely incredible that another White-billed Diver should turn up on the same stretch of an inland Lincolnshire river and is only the fourth inland record for the UK.
 Anyway back to the birding,i arrived at Kirkstead Bridge in overcast conditions,but at least it wasn't foggy.
 I got the kit together and headed onto the river bank,but the bird was nowhere to be seen unfortunately and i tried to remain optimistic that the bird was still present.
 As i walked i could see some guys with cameras distantly and i thought to myself it must be still here.As i neared where they where stood,there it was,the Banana billed beast!.
 I just stood and admired it through the scope to begin with,what a cracking bird,taking in all the ID features,particularly the monster bill,striking pale neck sides and face and the lovely scalloped patterning to the wing coverts.
 The bird was very actively feeding,but unfortunately as more people arrived the bird became much more wary and was constantly being pushed along the river particularly by those stood on the bank top.I tried to explain to a few of the visitors that if you are lower down and patiently wait,the bird will come to us,but no one listened and there was one particular photographer who was just chasing it up and down,disgusting behaviour and not at all thinking about the birds welfare or the other visitors.The complete lack of fieldcraft and knowledge of birds these days is incredible.....rant over!.
 Anyway back to the bird,i managed amazingly to get some half decent images of the bird myself by standing and waiting and obviously got some fantastic chances to study it through the scope,so not all was bad about the visit.
 A few days later the bird was seen to fly south past Kirkstead Bridge and was seen roughly 7km's south of there and then was flushed by a barge and wasn't seen again,no doubt heading out into the Wash.Personally i was just relieved it hadn't ended up in the same sad way the 1996 bird had and had stayed healthy for all it's time on the river.
 After seeing this stonker of a bird i dropped into the nearby Kirkby Pits,near to the little village of Kirkby-On-Bain.
 There were a few good birds that had been reported here and it wasn't long before i was watching two of them on Riverslea Pit...a Drake Ring-necked Duck and a female Scaup.
 The RND was typically sleeping,as they always are,but i did get a glimpse of they piercing yellow eye and white border to the bill base,before he went back to sleep.This is the first sighting of RND for myself since the 2nd calendar year Drake at Tophill Low,on February 8th 2013.The Scaup was more active and seen at the far end of the pit,my second sighting of the species for the year after the birds at New Holland a couple of weekends ago.
 Unfortunately there was no sign of the Great-white Egret or Juvenile Glaucous Gull that have been around,but i was very happy at what i had seen today.
 I travelled home back through the Wolds very happy that i had finally put the ghost of 21 years ago finally to sleep.

What A Bird!,Note The Bluish Tones To The Bill Base.

Showing The Strikingly Patterned Coverts And Paleness Of the Face,Neck Sides And Throat.

Distant Record Shot Of The Drake Ring-necked Duck At Kirkby Pits.