Dad's Week of Birding plus Another Great Day!

First I'll start with Dad's birding days on Monday and Tuesday. On Monday, because I'm at school and Mums at work, Dad went on his own to The Strand. He went to look for either the Long-tailed Duck or the Velvet Scoter. He couldn't locate the Long-tailed Duck, but after a bit of searching at Freston at the Stoke Sailing Club, he found the female Velvet Scoter...

Digiscoped Velvet Scoter at Freston

On Tuesday, he visited Lackford Lakes. He saw Goosander, Goldeneye, Snipe, Goldcrest and Bullfinch. Here are some of his pics, all digiscoped...

Drake Goldeneye

One of about 4 Snipe

And some Goosanders

Moving on, yesterday (Sunday 23rd), we went to visit The Strand, and Alton Water. We first went to the Strand, to look for the two scarce Ducks that Dad came down here to see. Well, as soon as we pulled up, people with scopes and binoculars were looking at the Velvet Scoter, incredible.....

Dad's Digiscoped Shot

My poor effort!

Here are some other birds that were about...

Greylag's with Wigeon in the background

Mute Swans

We then went to Freston and I spotted this amongst the boats....

A female Long-tailed Duck. Incredible!

We then moved on to Alton Water, and already getting 2 new yearlies, (Velvet Scoter and Long-tailed Duck), we were hoping to see the Great White Egret! Well, here's what we got....

Great White Egret at The Wonder

What we done was we parked in the Wonder car park, and went down the track that has the big map at the front, and followed it down until we got into a little clearing in the trees and viewed from 20 yards or so. It was brilliant. We also saw a drake Goosander fly over Lemons Hill Bridge, 2 Kingfisher, about 20 Little Egret, a Redpoll, a Goldcrest and plenty of Tufted Ducks. It was a great days Birding.

Thanks for reading and have a very Merry Christmas!