5th February 2009 - Smew Day!

Crossing the bridge between determined and insane, I went to Whitlingham for the third day in a row. This time Adam came as well, and his pseudo-Irish luck (he's been to Dublin you know) meant that every duck in the country park had congregated into one gap in the ice. Without too much trouble Adam picked out the Smew, a redhead, presumed to be a 1st winter male, although I don't know what distinguishes 1st winters from female plumage. Maybe someone saw it out of the water and it had Crazy Frog-style dangly genetalia. I also saw a female Goldeneye in the same pool. On the way back, we flushed a Common Sandpiper on Trowse Meadows.

The Smew is the left-hand bird, poorly digiscoped.

Year list 116 species