Coton roost

Wednesday 13th January 2010

Man to Farmer; '6 of your hens have stopped laying'

Farmer to man; 'how the hell do you know that'


Man to Farmer ; 'I've just run em over'.

Sorry about the above, least said the better I think. Anyway I did manage a bit of birding I hadn't anticipated. After a bit of work at College I had some business to attend to in Sutton so I popped into Coton pools on the way back. I was glad I did as despite the quite heavy snowfall there was some good birding to be had from the hide. I met Julian Allen on the way round to the hide, which was nice. Nice for me anyway, as although I would like to think my Gull identification skills are improving I've still got a long way to go compared to Julian. A Green Woodpecker flew through the snow as we approached the hide and gulls were flying over in a steady stream for the evening roost. We had flight views of one drake and 2 redhead Smew, and a further bird on the water, so there are at least 4 Smew remaining. Also, a pair of Common Shelduck flew in. A Cetti's warbler foraged in the grass tussocks, rarely showing itself. Julian got to work on the roost and eventually picked out an adult Caspian gull and then an adult Yellow legged Gull. It was quite a small roost so we were lucky to get both the two rarer gulls.