Ticking over

I am definitely not keeping a county yearlist this year. However, I am going to keep track of what I see... so in that context, I decided to swing by Holme Pierrepont on the way home from work yesterday, bagging the drake and redhead Smew on the pool on the NW side of Blott's Pit. It was then on to Kilvington, where I couldn't locate the Red-crested Pochard; in fact a Little Egret was the only bird of note. I wrapped things up at Hawton Works Grassland in the hope of Short-eared Owl; no luck on that front, but a Barn Owl was rather nice.

Today I had another crack at the gulls at Cotham Landfill. As is often the case, this was a frustrating experience; very blustery conditions and having to look into the sun made it hard going, and then all the gulls took up, most heading towards Pykett's Pond with the rest settling out of site on the plateau immediately north of the landfill. So I took a rain check and went in search of roosting Long-eared Owls. I did manage to find these, 5 in all, although I walked past them three times before finding them on the fourth! I grabbed a quick couple of shots and then left them in peace - great birds. Another quick look at the gulls revealed that most had failed to return, so a darvic ringed GBBG was the best I could manage! L68 on blue - it'll be interesting to see where that's come from.

This arvo a visit to Collingham was in order. I added three patch yearticks - Linnet, Lapwing and Pied Wagtail, but there wasn't much else of note - 2 Redshank and 2 Curlew was about the best, plus the two Egyptian Geese again (really, where were these when we needed them on the 1st..??).

So all in all, that puts my county yearlist on 98 and my patch yearlist on 66.