14th January - More Little Gulls!

A trip to Parton was not as good as I had hoped, the Grey Phalarope present the previous evening had dissapeared! Still there were plenty of gulls and waders to search through......! Next stop was Low Harrington, to let my kids play on there bikes for a while. It was a bit of a brisk wind, so we did not stay long. Not much bird wise here apart from a Raven!

From here we headed to Workington Harbour for a bit of a seawatch. It was a bit quiet for a while, but soon picked up when I saw an adult Little Gull fly south. This was followed by another seven (5 adults & 2 1st winter) plus 1 Great Northern Diver and 1 Red-throated Diver (the latter being county year tick number 114)! Also several Lesser-Black-backed Gulls!

After a quick stop off at Tesco's for some lunch we decided to go to Siddick Ponds. The kids whizzed up and down on their bikes whilst I had a look on the ponds. There were at least 10 Goosanders showing nicely on the ponds, along with small numbers of Teal and Goldeneye. Three Raven flew over the ponds. As the afternoon went on a Barn Owl was hunting in the opposite giving some really nice views and amazingly two otters put in an appearnce for a short-time. To finish of a pretty decent day a Bittern gave excellent views as it flew over the reedbed!