19-1-14

Whitemoor Haye.
Bit of a bugger today.  I loaded my bike up to check all of the pits out, wheeled it out to the front of the house and didn't notice the flat tyre until I went to get on it.  Bugger.  I unloaded everything and set out in my car but I decided to check out WH first before doing the pits.
32 Tufted Duck, 79 Wigeon, 2 Goldeneye, a few hundred Lapwing, 5 Mute Swan, several Tree Sparrow and Yellowhammer and 1 Kingfisher.

National Arboretum.
Quite a few Redwings were present throughout the site as well as a few Bullfinch, Goldcrest and Coal Tits.

Alrewas GP.
As soon as I arrived on site I could see a whitish duck was with the Tufties, I raised the bins and could see the female Long-tailed Duck was still present.  Cracking.  To add to this I located one redhead Smew on the far side of the pool.  Also on the pool were 38 Tufties, 7 Goldeneye, 12 Great Crested Grebe and 2 Mallard.  I walked along the sewage works and could see several Chiffchaff in the trees.  I counted up to 7 Chiffchaffs present and then one stood out, looking a bit different.  About a year ago I saw my first Siberian Chiffchaff, greyish pale birds compared to normal Chiffchaff.  I am no expert by a long way and I remember a conversation with another blogger about finding a Tristis at Alrewas gp, this bird looked good and I managed to get a few photos but in felt I was not good enough to call this bird a Tristis  A few birders have been enjoying the Smew and Long-tailed Duck and also the possible Siberian Chiffchaff has also been present and various birders are agreeing it looks good.  Just need to hear the call now, oh yeah, and get it split from Colybita too.