Travelled up to Coldwaltham this am in the hope of seeing the 2 Black-necked Grebes that had been reported there before the floods there finally disappear. Upon arrival it was soon apparent that the water levels had dropped drastically and all the birds were concentrated on the remaining water and there was a lot of birds here too albeit very distant.
I managed to pick out the grebes although very difficult as constantly diving and one individual is in it summer plumage already(something which I used to witness quite frequently at Staines reservoir). The female Scaup was easily found and I was rather pleased to see a female Goldeneye, all birds I had not seen at this site before. Good number of Wigeon, Pintail and a bitter wind were a reminder why the winter birds were hanging on, where would this large number of birds go one this water disappears? The camera stayed well in the bag today!
At lunchtime I checked the Goring area, the fields are also dried out here now and very little in the fields apart from the resident Skylarks and Pied Wagtails. Offshore several Great-crested Grebes and Red-breasted Mergansers...at last some birds on the water here!
