Bits and Bobs

I've only been out a few times times to Rinde Road and Pennington Flash since my last post, with nothing much to report except the following sightings at Penny:

• Kingfisher - sat on the branch in front of Pengy's Hide just long enough for me to get my camera ready, and then flew off just before I pressed the shutter.  Sarah had a good view of her first Kingfisher through the bins though.

• Great Spotted Woodpecker - these are fairly regular visitors to the feeding station at Bunting Hide but I hadn't seen one for quite a while before today. The light was poor and so were most of my pictures, but the colours on the Woodpecker's plumage were stunning.

• Great Crested Grebe - looked like a young perhaps first or second year bird and seemed very unconcerened as it came up very close to Horrocks Hide.  It was more bothered with the nearby Coots than the people.

• Pochard - this was the closest I've got to a Pochard as it too came quite close to Horrocks Hide.

• Goldeneye - I saw this solitary female Goldeneye on a visit to East Bay Hide, which I don't visit very often. 

• Mark Cain - it was nice to meet up with Mark again and have a chat about our birding exploits.

The Lapwing have also returned to the spit in great numbers, although on one visit there was almost nothing on the spit - the most empty I've ever seen it.