Urban Birding

Goosanders (c) 2010 Vince Cowell

Redwing (c) 2010 Vince Cowell

The planned location was still ice-bound yesterday, so we visited a thawed-out urban location instead. The extensive lake only had 2 isolated areas free of ice, so the wildfowl were crammed into those - rather conveniently for us. There were 14 Goosanders, which we managed to get closer views of than normal, and a drake Shoveler was there morning and afternoon. After lunch these were joined by a very vocal drake Wigeon, but its efforts to rouse another of its kind went unfulfilled. 19 Pochard were present and a few Tufted Ducks - the famine of these two species was apparent when they lunged for the bread like all the other domestic species! A Great Spotted Woodpecker was drumming until a female came in and chased him off. 3 Redwings were around in the morning and a singing Coal Tit, but there was no sign of either of these in the afternoon. There were too many Canada Geese and Coots, as is usual with these locations. Although in the centre of the city, this venue was more productive than the frozen over North Cave Wetlands the previous day. That only managed the relatively low tally of 32 species, and most of these were very distant birds. The highlights at North Cave were a spanking male Lesser Redpoll and a couple of females, plus a flock of at least 6 Bullfinches.