Managed a post Christmas jaunt yesterday, I’d lined up Ben Ward and Dave Roberts to meet up at the Apex pit gull roost early afternoon but Ben text to say he wouldn’t make it after getting stuck at the Blue Rock Thrush site ! never mind , eyes ever peeled for Waxwings for Dave’s Year list we headed North, it soon became apparent the descending fog was going to be a problem, after checking a site in Barkston that hosted Waxwings a week or so ago we decided the Apex was going to be a non starter as visibility was down to about 30m !
We checked the field between Barkston and Hough that Dave had a single Whooper and sure enough it was still there on its lonesome.
We had a drive round some previous Waxwing haunts between Hough and Navenby but to no avail. Frieston lakes weren’t even visible with visibility down to about 5m !
The decision was made to try Ancaster pits which amazingly was fog free, walking through the woods was pretty quiet, small flocks of Black headed gulls and Tufties weren’t hiding anything amongst them, the resident Egyptian geese were on the island with the usual supporting cast of Greylag, Canada’s and Heinz 57 varieties.
We checked the paddocks for Thrushes and Finches but it was fairly quiet, I then noticed a small flock of Brambling feeding silently in Hawthorn right above our heads, they were incredibly settled and allowed us to attempt to photograph them, not easy in the fading light, descending fog and looking straight up at them.
A great afternoon out , nothing spectacular but just good birding !
lincsbirders 