Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Unprecedented Infux?

The excitement continues with yet another juvenile Great Northern Diver this morning at Scammonden, having seen 2 late yesterday at Blackmoorfoot.




Aside from the GN Diver situation there must have been a influx of ducks over the last couple of days as there were 6 Teal at Ringstone plus a Goldeneye at Deanhead yesterday and just south of the area on a partially frozen area of water not much bigger than some garden ponds I had 9 Wigeon, 2 Teal and another 2 Goldeneye.

Today on the same area of water there were 12 Teal, 3 Wigeon and the same 2 Goldeneye plus the Goldeneye on Deanhead which was still around. Blackmoorfoot also had 4 Wigeon and 2 Goldeneye yesterday and then 4 unseasonable Shelduck turn up at Ringstone, it just goes to show that moorland reservoirs aren't always birdless!




Anyhow back to Scammonden, I located the GN Diver at 10:55hrs and managed to get a few digiscoped efforts before it swam steadily towards the M62 and completely out of my photographic range. I observed it for about 40 minutes and in all that time it only dived twice and sadly didn't appear to catch anything on either occasion.

Other birds noted:

78 Canada Goose
1 Greylag Goose
1 male Sparrowhawk
2 Little Grebe
2 Cormorant

1 comment:

Jeff Cox said...

Nothing on Withins Clough today (or last Sunday either but it was very wet then). I must summon up the energy to get over to Lighthazzles, Whiteholme and Blackstone Edge to check them.