Great Northern Diver ( Staffs) and Belvide

With news of a Great Northern Diver turning up just up the road in Lower Penn, I decided to pop over, making the most of a day off from work . It was a species I had not seen, and they had been popping up on many inland water bodies over the last few days, so it seemed wise to chance a low mileage " twitchette".

Aside from the very muddy path, this was a jaffa as it turned out, a twenty minute drive and a ten minute walk and I was watching the bird at close quarters, with just 2 other birders..perfect. The bird was doing plenty of diving and the occasional 'snorkel'

From here I decided to carry on up to Belvide. I fancied trying to catch up with a few species I had seen little of  lately, or even this year.I'm an WMBC member but don't visit Belvide nearly often enough, in fact it had been over 12 months since my last visit !
It was less than 30 mins up to the Resa' and I enjoyed a couple of hours watching the decent numbers of  ducks bobbing about, especially the numerous Goldeneye, which was a year first. There were plenty of Pochard, Wigeon, Teal, and Great Crested Grebes as well as a Lesser Black Backed Gull of note. It's always good as well to catch up with the Tree Sparrows, a bird I rarely see elsewhere. A Water Rail squealed it's presence too. With the expected Winter Thrushes and other passerines, it was an enjoyable couple of hours.
I was virtually alone on the reserve and leaving the West Hide at around 13.40 I passed a birder heading to where I had come from. It was most likely the author of Belvide Birding who later posted on his blog that, ironically, a Great Northern Diver had dropped in at 14.03 !



Great Northern Diver

                                                                  
                                                                           Female Goldeneye