Red-head Smew

Off on another walk on a dry, bright, clear and sunny morning. 5 degrees C with a light NW breeze.

At the seafront there were 9 Sanderling running along the tideline, but no Turnstones in view.

At KP the first thing I noticed was the sound coming from hundreds of Greylag Geese on the Mere. I scanned the water for any sign of the Common Scoter, Long-tailed Duck and Smew that have been reported over the last few days but I couldn't pick up anything through the bins. I decided to go over to the south side as the mass of Greylags were all congregated over there.

In 1st field I got a much better view of the water as the sun was now behind me, and in a few seconds I found the Smew. A nice looking red head :)

Female Smew from 1st field this morning

A boat with a couple of MD's put up the whole Greylag Goose herd. I reckon there were upwards of 1100 birds in the sky over the Mere. Spotted 4 White-fronted Geese in the mob :)

On towards Wassand hide there were about 40 Redwing feeding on hawthorn berries along with 4 Bullfinch.  In the hedgerows on the way back there were plenty of Tree Sparrows, Linnet, Goldfinch and Reed Buntings. Also a Skylark was up in the clear blue sky singing away. Great to hear that on an Autumn morning.

Female Reed Bunting

 The 100+ herd of Barnacle Goose were in the ploughed field as usual as I made my way back home.

3 of over 100 Barnacle Goose