Lackford Area

Mum, Dad and I went around the Lackford area yesterday. As I was on 90 for the British Year List, my target for the day was to get to 100. Day started off well with a Green Woodpecker in Norton, and a flock of Grey Partridge at Stowlangtoft. We then arrived at our first destination, at West Stow CP. We parked up, and asked a birder for directions for the Crossbills that have been showing extremely well in the puddles. He said "they're right behind you!" I said "it's not a panto mate!" LOL. Anyway, got all the optics set up, and waited for the Crossbills to come to the puddle. Loads of noise and traffic, so its surprising that they a re this tame. We got some great pictures of them in the trees....

They then came down to the puddle...

We then moved on to Lackford Lakes. As it is winter, the Bitterns should have returned to the reserve. I have never seen a Bittern here before, so it would have been great if we were to see one here. We started off with Marsh Tit, Shoveler on the year list, and a cracking male Goldeneye....

We then got a superb Kingfisher in the double decker hide...

We then got a flyover Grey Wagtail as we headed to Steggals Hide. On the way we got a pair of Egyptian Geese on the golf course

We arrived at Steggals and found 4 Red-crested Pochards showing incredibly close!

I then started scanning the reedbeds at the back, and blow me down I spotted a distant Bittern sitting in the reeds!!!!!!!!! OMG! A bit distant for photos, but the digiscope got some decent pics....

An incredible first for the reserve from my perspective. We didn't think the reserve had much else to offer, but we got 6 very distant Goosanders, including 3 drakes.

Finally, we went to Bess' Hide, to see the gull roost, and the hope of picking up something rare. We got in there and had the hide to ourselves. There was about 100 Lesser-black Backed Gulls on the lake, with a lone Barnacle Goose, 3 Goldeneyes and several other common water birds. I started scanning through the gulls and picked up about 3 Yellow-legged Gulls, and a adult gull that looked very suspicious. Either Herring or another Yellow-legged Gull. Maybe a hybrid????

What a great day. Reached 100 species!!!! We never have a bad day. So lucky!

Happy Birding!