The fist birding group date we could make in January was to Pennington Flash on the last day of the month. It started off a little wet but soon dried up. It wasn’t even all that windy ! The main attractions were the possibility of seeing the Long-tailed Duck we had seen last year and also some Scaup. Not only did we get both these birds but we also got a fair range of other birds including “nine year ticks”
We started off at Pennington with a look at the main flash and the surrounding trees visible from the car park area. This brought us a nice group of Redwing bit most of the interest ws on the flash itself.
It took us quite a while to tease out the four Greater Scaup mixed in with the Tufted Ducks way at the back of the main flash. Eventually, however, we were quite confident in out identification. The Long-tailed Duck was somewhat easier to find after a chap had pointed us in the general direction and this proved easier to see from outside the Horrocks Hide than inside it. There were also high numbers of Goldeneye on the flash and visible from all over the site. This seems like it might be a record year here for Goldeneye. Inside Horrocks there were good vews of Goosander and at least 28 Common Snipe.
Tom Edmonsdon hide was pretty quiet with pairs of Goosander, Teal, Mallard and Shoveler. Ramsdale was a bit busier with good numbers of Goldeneye again and plenty of Teal, a few Goosander and half a dozen Great-crested Grebe and a pair of Little Grebes.
At the Teal Hide we added Gadwall to the daily count but there were also good numbers of Shoveler.
The trees held a few Goldcrests whic I managed to see but didn’t have the same luck with Siskin and Lesser Redpoll like some of the others !
Coming round to the Bunting Hide there were good numbers of Dunnock, Robin and Blackbird and, of course, Moorhen and Stock Dove. Nuthatch and Reed Bunting were a nice addition but I didn’t see a Willow Tit.
A final bird of the day was a brief view of a Water Rail receding into the undergrowth from Pengy’s Hide. It seems that two of them have been showing well there recently.
So, all in all, a pretty good day at Pennington with Long-tailed Duck, Greater Scaup and Water Rail the clear favourited and a nice affition to the year list of not always easy to see birds. I got nine “year ticks” and we got a total of thirty-nine species. Pennington rarely disappoints
Bird Sightings : Pennington Flash : Environs
| Canada Goose | 50 |
| Mute Swan | 6 |
| Mallard | 30 |
| Common Pochard | 3 |
| Tufted Duck | 60 |
| Greater Scaup | 4 |
| Common Goldeneye | 40 |
| Grey Heron | 1 |
| Common Moorhen | 20 |
| Common Coot | 20 |
| Black-headed Gull | 20 |
| Herring Gull | 4 |
| Eurasian Blue Tit | 2 |
| Goldcrest | 3 |
| Redwing | 4 |
| Song Thrush | 1 |
| Common Chaffinch | 6 |
| Eurasian Bullfinch | 2 |
Bird Sightings : Pennington Flash : Horrocks Hide
| Long-tailed Duck | 1 |
| Goosanderr | 4 |
| Great Cormorant | 50 |
| Northern Lapwing | 100 |
| Common Snipe | 28 |
Bird Sightings : Pennington Flash : Tom Edmondson Hide
| Mallard | 2 |
| Northern Shoveler | 1 |
| Common Teal | 2 |
| Goosander | 2 |
Bird Sightings : Pennington Flash : Ramsdale’s Hide
| Common Teal | 40 |
| Tufted Duck | 20 |
| Common Goldeneye | 13 |
| Goosander | 4 |
| Little Grebe | 2 |
| Great Crested Grebe | 6 |
| Grey Heron | 1 |
| Common Moorhen | 4 |
| Common Coot | 6 |
| Eurasian Magpie | 1 |
Bird Sightings : Pennington Flash : Teal Hide
| Gadwall | 2 |
| Northern Shoveler | 12 |
| Common Teal | 20 |
| Tufted Duck | 10 |
| Goosander | 4 |
| Common Moorhen | 8 |
| Common Coot | 8 |
Bird Sightings : Pennington Flash : Bunting Hide
| Water Rail | 1 |
| Common Moorhen | 8 |
| Stock Dove | 2 |
| Coal Tit | 1 |
| Great Tit | 2 |
| Eurasian Blue Tit | 3 |
| Long-tailed Tit | 1 |
| Eurasian Nuthatch | 1 |
| European Robin | 6 |
| Eurasian Blackbird | 4 |
| Dunnock | 5 |
| Reed Bunting | 3 |