Pennington Flash Birding Group Visit : 22nd November 2016
THe birding group visit this week was to Pennington Flash (because of the weather). It turned out to be a fine day and we did get one of our two target birds. We didn’t see the female Scaup, which had presumably flown, but we did manage good views, on arrival and departure, of a Long-tailed Duck which was a nice local spot although I had seen lots of them in Scotland recently.
We had a nice day for it – not too cold and windy and dry and some sun. The highlight of the day was obviously the Long-tailed Duck but we also got a few Redwing, Willow TIts and a Goldcrest. There were lots of Goosander in ost on the smaller ponds and lots of Goldeneye on the open water. We heard a Cetti’s Warbler calling loudly by the canal bride area reeedbed but we couldn’t clap eyes on it.
One surprising discovery was that the Bunting Hide area was completely empty and without an food put down at all. I don’t know if they have had a rat problem or whether they are rethinking their previous policy of getting rid of the caged feeding platforms which seemed to have led to a huge influx of bigger animals, Squirrels, Magpies, Stock Doves and Woodpigeons etc. It remains to be seen what happens with this area.
Bird Sightings : Pennington Flash : Environs
| Canada Goose | 30 |
| Mute Swan | 20 |
| Mallard | 50 |
| Tufted Duck | 60 |
| Long-tailed Duck | 1 |
| Common Goldeneye | 10 |
| Little Grebe | 2 |
| Great Crested Grebe | 14 |
| Common Moorhen | 4 |
| Common Coot | 30 |
| Herring Gull | 4 |
| Lesser Black-backed Gull | 1 |
| Common Wood Pigeon | 6 |
| Eurasian Collared Dove | 1 |
| Common Kestrel | 1 |
| Eurasian Jay | 2 |
| Eurasian Magpie | 4 |
| Willow Tit | 2 |
| Great Tit | 1 |
| Eurasian Blue Tit | 2 |
| Long-tailed Tit | 4 |
| Eurasian Wren | 1 |
| Goldcrest | 1 |
| Cetti’s Warbler | 1 |
| European Robin | 6 |
| Eurasian Blackbird | 4 |
| Redwing | 3 |
| Dunnock | 1 |
| Reed Bunting | 1 |
Bird Sightings : Pennington Flash : Horrocks Hide
| Canada Goose | 20 |
| Mallard | 30 |
| Common Goldeneye | 12 |
| Goosander | 7 |
| Great Crested Grebe | 6 |
| Great Cormorant | 12 |
| Grey Heron | 1 |
| Common Moorhen | 2 |
Bird Sightings : Pennington Flash : Tom Edmonson Hide
| Common Teal | 12 |
| Tufted Duck | 6 |
| Common Goldeneye | 1 |
| Grey Heron | 1 |
Bird Sightings : Pennington Flash : Ramsdale Hide
| Mallard | 10 |
| Common Teal | 12 |
| Common Goldeneye | 1 |
| Goosander | 10 |
Bird Sightings : Pennington Flash : Teal Hide
| Gadwall | 4 |
| Eurasian Wigeon | 2 |
| Northern Shoveler | 12 |
| Tufted Duck | 8 |
| Goosander | 8 |