Mid-afternoon today, lovely and clear and then within five minutes thick fog rolled in from the west! Prior to that though, two Great White Egrets by Ramsdales Scrape.

This afternoon saw a total of 66 Shovelers, with a good number at the small open area at the western end.

An hour this morning from Horrock's hide, not much open water just a bit around the spit. 

Teal 144

Greylag 49

Tufted duck 165

Goosander 7

Goldeneye 5

Shoveler 33

Great white egret 1 on the spit

Late afternoon today:

2 Great White Egrets together around where the spit used to be!

27 Goldeneye

86 Great Black-backed Gulls, many of which flew off SW before dusk

23 Greylag Geese still around the spit but they flew off S/SW before dusk

64+ Gadwall flew W/NW around 3:20pm, appeared to come up from the ‘nature reserve’ area somewhere

An hour this morning at Green Lane,

Wigeon 2 (m&f)

Great white egret 4

Little egret 3

Pochard 3

Greylag 25

Drake Mandarin on canal near Plank Lane Marina 12 noon

Full circuit this morning, 8:30-11:30;

Mandarin 2, male and female at Plank lane marina, seen copulating

Great white egret 2

Little egret 3

Goosander 7

Goldeneye 15

Pochard 1 drake

The drake mandarin has been mainly at Plank lane marina but occasionally on the flash for at least two years. When it first arrived it had a purple ring but that must have dropped off because it's not had it for at least 18 months. I think that the male was most likely an escape from a collection, because of the ring but also because it will approach quite close when people start chucking bread. The female appeared at the beginning of September and has been much more sparodic in it's appearances, in fact before Thursday I hadn't seen it since the end of October. It doesn't have a leg ring and is much more wary, today it was the only duck that didn't swim towards a child with bread. I suspect that this is a wild bred bird from some local population.

Mid to late afternoon today:

5 drake Pochard at the western end (one was in Ramsdales early on but moved across towards dusk)

1 drake Mandarin in Ramsdales displaying to a pair of Mallard

23 Goldeneye at dusk

3 Great White Egrets with two on Ramsdales Scrape and one at the western end

1 Little Egrets on Ramsdales Scrape close to dusk

3090 Herring Gulls

114 Great Black-backed Gulls

1 adult Yellow-legged Gull

Three Woodcocks on the south side at first light this morning.

Info thanks to Bill Harrison

This late afternoon:

5 drake Pochard at the western end

26 Goldeneye

1 Little Egret in Ramsdales

1 Great White Egret flew across the length of the flash and dropped into the western end

An excellent gull roost (positionally as they were all just off Sorrow Cow) but with worsening rain I left 15 minutes before dusk and gulls were still piling in, though nothing scarce/rare was picked out before that

3 Great White Egrets and a Little Egret in Ramsdales at 4:20pm today

Info thanks to Phil Rhodes

A couple of hours this afternoon,

presumed Siberian chiffchaff calling, see below.

Great white egret 1 in Ramsdales reedbed

Little egret 2

Pochard 5 inc. 4 males

Siskin 2

The presumed Siberian chiffchaff tristis was with a flock of long-tailed tits on the ruck near to the 5-bar metal gate just west of the leaning posts, where you can get a good view of Ramsdales reedbed. I initially had a very brief view of a chiffchaff with a distinct pale supercilium in a birch tree. It then flew over my head and landed in a tree 3m behind me on the ruck, but unfortunately I was looking right into the bright sun, so I could get no colouration on the bird. It was just a tail-pumping silhouette. The bird called twice, a bullfinch like call quite unlike a common chiffchaff collybita. Then it was gone, it flew over the pond and into the trees. I didn't see it again. I'm saying presumed rather than definite just because I didn't see it as well as I would like and the call doesn't completely rule out other races of chiffchaff, though how likely they are to be seen in the UK I couldn't say. Perhaps rarer than tristis! 

Over the past four or five winters I've spent a lot of time at the sewage works at Martin Mere watching and listening to the several tristis that over winter there. I have no doubt that what I heard was this race.

This morning 1 x Chiffchaff bottom of the Ruck, 12 x Goosander, 1 x Goldeneye, 7 x Siskin, 2 x Kingfisher, 5 x Little Egret

Almost up to dusk today:

14 Goldeneye

4 drake Pochard

Gull roost poor especially by recent standards

No egrets!

Ian McKerchar wrote:

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Mid-afternoon up to dusk today:

14 Goldeneye

20 Little Egrets, nearly all on the edge of Ramsdales Scrape at one brief point before heading off one or two at a time to roost

6 Great White Egrets

Bittern flew across Ramsdales into the reedbed at around 3:30pm (from the direction of the ‘nature reserve’), for one brief second with three other ’herons’ in the same field of view

2860 Herring Gulls in the roost

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Also, a leucistic adult Herring Gull at dusk (and long distance), with fairly normal looking argenteus mantle colour, slightly paler looking wing coverts and very faded darker on the very outer primaries only visible at as high a magnification as the light would allow and fortuitously as the bird very kindly wing flapped at one point but whilst Phil and I always thought the bird looked like a Herring Gull it still gave a few brief seconds of hope for an Iceland Gull!

Today,

Ring ouzel 1 1st winter. Possibly the most surprising bird of the year for me, it was down on the ruck, between the footbridge over the canal and trees about 200m west. It was very vocal, which is what attracted my attention to it, and quite mobile flying around a circuit which included trees on both sides of the canal. I'm assuming that on such a late date the northerly winds have brought this bird from northern Europe rather than in being a late UK bird. This is the latest ring ouzel I have seen in the UK by over a month and a first for Pennington Flash for me. Photos attached.

Fieldfare 8 on the ruck, though not with the ring ouzel.

Great white egret 5

Little egret 10+

Pochard 8

Goosander 15

Goldeneye 10

Around midday today,

Great white egret 6+ (five together in Ramsdales and one at the western end)

Little egret 8+

Goldeneye 5 including one male

Goosander 19 including five males

This morning, 

At least 6 great white egrets, 8 little egrets, 2 shelduck and 5 goldeneye.

Late afternoon today up to dusk:

Drake Mandarin along the southern shore of the ruck

A pair of Wigeon

At least one drake Pochard

12 Goldeneye, including one adult drake

11 Goosanders, also including one drake

3 Great White Egrets and at least 5 Little Egrets

Noticeable decrease in Great Black-backed Gull numbers in the gull roost, which in itself was a decent size, but also a noticeable increase in argentatus Herring Gull numbers too

Cetti's Warbler around the shoreline bushes by Sorrow Cow Pond