WHITLINGHAM: A few more ducks and a Goldeneye

12th November 2011

Illness had prevented me from going out last weekend, so I was particularly keen to get to Whitlingham early on and see what wildfowl had arrived. November is one of the best times to find scarce ducks at the C.P, with Ring-necked Duck, Pintail and Red-crested Pochard in previous years. None of those species were present today (ironically its the Pintail I was hoping for most), but there was a range of the expected winter ducks in small numbers - 1 Goldeneye, 2 Shovelers, 5 Pochard, 16 Wigeon and 30+ Teal. A couple of Little Grebes were bobbing around near the Cormorant posts.

Many birds were flying overhead, I noted Redwings, Skylarks and a Lesser Redpoll, but I'm probably missing out on some ticks by not knowing more flight calls. Is there a CD of flight calls made anywhere, or is this going to be a bird-by-bird Xeno Canto job? I didn't see the Siskin flock that was around a couple of weeks ago, but it was quite mobile. Near the Little Broad was a dead Coot. I checked it in case it was ringed (it wasn't) then left it. I sort of felt that I should move the body into the undergrowth or something, but as I couldn't decided why that would be of any benefit I decided against it.