First we had a quick walk down to the Lin Dike Hide where on the way we saw lots of Fieldfare and Redwing feeding on the berry trees. When we got in the hide on the lake there was Teal, Mute Swans and Black Headed Gulls. After a while I saw a bird come towards us from the lake just beyond the lake in front of the hide, when it got closer I noticed it was a stunning male Goosander! The Goosander after flying around the lake for a bit, flew over the hide were we couldn't relocate it again.
Afterwards we moved on to the Flashes. When we arrived at the Flashes there was lots of Teal, Mallards, Tufted Ducks, Coots, Shoveler and Black Headed Gulls about. Soon after I spotted some different birds which were quite distant on the lake. As the birds kept bobbing under the water to look for food I noticed a pointed tail then I suddenly thought Pintail. As I took a few shots I then confirmed that they were Pintail! There was 3 in total, 2 males and 1 female. We stayed watching these great birds for about half an hour before heading of to the Pickup hide.
Pintail
Tufted Duck
On the way through the reserve to reach the Pickup hide we saw a Willow Tit and a very friendly Robin which came within about 2 feet of us! When we arrived at the Pickup hide, there wasn't hardly anything on the lake accept for a few Teal and Mallards so we decided to move on to the Kingfisher Screen where after a while of waiting we did not see the Kingfisher but we did keep seeing more and more Redwings and Fieldfares.
Robin
After we went back to the Flashes to see if the Pintail had moved any closer. The Pintail had moved quite a bit closer but lighting was going so it was quite hard to get shots.
Pintail
After a brilliant days birding we headed of home.
Great day out you guys had , well done on seeing the Pintail , one of my fav ducks , i would have liked the Willow Tit to , very rare down my way :-)
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