Midweek at the Pits

An early finish at work enabled me to get an hours birding in at Salford Priors late afternoon on Thursday.

As I parked up I could see a large flock of Greylag feeding at Pophills so I thought I'd try this area first. As I walked along the hedgerow I flushed a number of Yellowhammers whilst there were Sky Larks in good voice again.

Sadly I couldn't see any rare geese among the 95 Greylag who were in company of a single Shelduck and 25 Canada Geese. On the pit shingle Sundays Oystercatcher had been joined by another two Shelduck, Common Sandpiper and a first winter Dunlin. Whilst the light wasn't great I did get a couple of record shots. 

As I headed towards the road I came across 2 Jack Snipe and 5 Snipe in the Pophills field.

Over on main pit a Lesser Black-backed Gull was keeping the Black Headed company. A Dunlin was on the main pit however it looked to be the bird from Pophills. Diving duck numbers were very low as I only counted 24 Tufted Duck and one Pochard.