Goldeneye lifts the gloom

 Goldeneye

 Back of camera Goldeneye

 Song Thrush

 Nuthatch

 Greater Spotted Woodpecker

 Winter thrushes

 Water Rail through the gloom

 The pair of Worcester Peregrines

 Winter relections

 Upton Little Egret

 Coal Tit

 Shelduck

Pochards

The pits were besieged with fog and mist all weekend making birding very difficult. I undertook three seperate visits with varying levels of success.

Despite my best efforts on Saturday the fog was just too thick however I did find a Water Rail in front of reeds on the main pit before I headed up to Hillers to register a few year ticks with Treecreeper, Song Thrush & a very showy Nuthatch. It was a shame the light was so poor as the photos would have been much better. 

Sports taxi duty took me to Worcester on the afternoon where I called in at the cathedral to get a fleeting view of the Black Redstart and two very vocal Peregrines.

It was the same story on Sunday so I held back for an afternoon visit to the pits. I did call into Upton Warren for an hour but there was no escaping the murkiness. Hightlights included 6 Snipe, Little Egret, 5 Curlew, 5 Pochard & 32 Lapwing.

The pits were in slightly better light so I stopped at Hillers to find the Brambling in same location as last week before heading down to the main pit where a Great Blacked-Gull flew over which landed on Pophills (also seen my Mike Inskip). Only other birds of note were 7 Pochard & the Shelduck.

A switch of shifts on Monday and a window dry weather enabled an early trip on Monday. 3 Wigeon & a Green Sandpiper greeted me on Pophills before heading over the road passing a female Bullfinch & a flock of Long-tailed Tits.

After scanning the Teal flock I thought I'd go through the dabbling ducks and there to my surprise was a female Goldeneye, the first record since 2014. The Squire quickly landed behind me and we watched the bird for about 30 minutes before the rain started. The only downside was I'd forgot to put the memory card back in the camera so had to use camera's memory, then take a back of camera shoot. 

Other midweek sightings included a Yellow-legged Gull & a probable agents northern type of Herring Gull. Chris described the Gull as larger than usual Herring, yellow legged, darker than normal mantle, very heavy head with neck streaking. Interesting for sure.