A Rare Visitor

I took a short trip over the county border today when I made one of my very infrequent visits to Eyebrook reservoir. In all honesty I don't know why I don't visit more often as it's one of the best birding spots around. Conditions were rather grey and dreary but thankfully rather mild, winter has not quite kicked in yet.

View from the bridge and a Kestrel.

Lots of birds were present with numbers of Teal seemingly rather high, I checked them for any Green-wingeds but drew a blank. Another species here in force was Lapwing, there were probably over a thousand. Mixed in with them were about forty Golden Plovers while a slightly higher number of Dunlins were feeding on the exposed mud.

Little Egret and awful picture of distant Med Gull.

Plenty of Common and Black-headed Gulls were at the "sharp end" and a check through them revealed a first winter Mediterranean Gull near the tern rafts. A drake Pintail was initially seen near the Stoke Dry car park but gradually swan up the res towards the island. Happily for me I caught up with one of my main targets when I found six Smew off the plantation shore. This little flock made up of three drakes and a similar haul of redheads were sadly way too far away for even a dreadful record shot but were still nice to see, Eyebrook is one of the most reliable sites in the Midlands for this attractive though scarce visitor.

Lapwings and Golden Plovers.

A pair of Shelduck were on the island along with a good number of Cormorants though I could not find the Bewick's Swan that has been quite regular here. It never really seemed to get brighter today and the photos were on the whole a bit grim so apologies for the poor quality or downright awful record shots.

Pintail and Goldeneye.