Due to thick,freezing fog locally and the offer of some nice birds,i headed over to Covenham Reservoir today,the following is what i saw.
After initially thinking i had made a mistake heading out towards Covenham,due to patchy fog,i made it along Barton Street and it suddenly cleared to bright blue skies and sunshine,what a contrast!.
After getting plenty of layers on and the birding kit together i walked up the slope from the car park to the yacht club.
Literally the first bird i clapped eyes on was the wintering juvenile Great-northern Diver,what a great start.
I watched through the scope as it fed at some distance,never coming really close and constantly diving,so i only got some poor phone scoped clips.
As i was watching the Diver a wader flew in below me and it was the reported Purple Sandpiper.
It proceeded to give some fantastic views as it fed along the banks of the Res,as they more often than not do,usually being a confiding species.
This species is usually found wintering along our rocky coastlines,but occasionally they do turn up inland like this bird,what a little cracker and unlike the Diver i got some superb video of the bird.
After enjoying the Purp i walked along the west bank of the Res,past the yacht club building to see the next two goodies fly in.
The first was the wintering juvenile Shag which was watched fishing and gave some nice views,a pretty decent inland record,but the second was a species i hadn't seen for a few years,a gorgeous Smew and a Drake.
I watched as the 'White Nun' gave some super views feeding alongside his Goldeneye and Tuftie buddies,what a lovely species these are.
White Nun is the old english name given to the species by Wildfowlers.
After all this activity from the sites star birds,i settled to scan through the commoner species achieving some good counts which included 85 Cormorant,37 Shoveler,71 Gadwall,45 Wigeon,21 Pochard,128 Tufted Duck and 38 Goldeneye.
Also overhead,338 Pink-footed Geese flew north
A single Drake Goosander was also noted along with 82 Great-crested and 6 Little Grebes.
As i neared the southern end of the Res,the familiar sound of cronking Ravens was heard and i watched as the resident pair flew past giving some cracking views.They really are brilliant birds and are a personal favourite.
A little further on and more scanning saw me seeing the final goodie of the visit,a female Scaup in amongst its commoner relatives.
The bird showed nicely,albeit into the sun,but a nice species to see and pretty scarce these days unfortunately.
Well what a cracking visit today and well worth braving the icy roads for and really nice to visit the site again after such a long time.
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| Drake Smew With A Drake Goldeneye. |
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| Juvenile Shag. |
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| The Western Bank Of The Reservoir. |
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