Kirkby, Woodhall.

2nd Dec.

Lovely sunny morning for a change. At Kirkby on Bain there were loads of birds. A couple of thousand large white-headed gulls around the tip must have held something good but I couldn’t find it. The vast majority were herring gulls, with a hundred or so greater-black backs.

Good numbers of winter wildfowl on the pits but nothing outstanding. Seventeen common snipe enjoyed the sunshine on the island in front of the hide.

Woodhall Spa gravel pits.

This site, at the old airfield has been taken over by Lincs. wildlife trust and is set to be a major new Lincolnshire reserve. Already very good for wildfowl and waders, much work is going on to improve it, with landscaping, hides etc. Should be good.

The two large pits were stuffed with birds. Wigeon numbers must have been close to a thousand and the greylag goose flock was close to 1,500. I went through them all thoroughly, hoping that a stray rarer species may have joined them. All I got was this smart bar-headed goose looking in good nick, I seem to remember it’s been around a while. A single pink-foot also stood out, then a group of nine dropped onto the pit for a brief stay.