The weather was good and there was a local Great Northern Diver available at Pugneys Country Park. Took me about 25mins to arrive on site and it was already busy with walkers, runners, dog walkers, children and a few birders. Pugneys is a large open area with two lakes, the largest for recreational purposes with the smaller being the nature reserve, the diver was on the larger which was about 50% frozen. Keeping at a safe distance I hooked up with another birder to locate the diver which was surprisingly proving difficult to find.
Scanning through the various ducks, Mallard, Pochard, Wigeon, Tufted Duck, Goldeneye, Great Crested and Little Grebes the diver was still eluding us, Cormorant in the distance gave us a short rush. It eventually gave it self up to the right side of the lake and seeing the size difference, being much larger than the wildfowl makes you wonder how it wad overlooked. A lifer for the other birder so a good start to the day, onwards then to Potteric Carr.
Wasn’t long at Potteric due to heavy snow so had to cancel after about 30mins so few species were seen, most of the water was frozen too, I was hoping for more woodland species from the visit so only managed to pick up on Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Redwing, Blue Tit, Blackbird, Great Tit, Moorhen, Robin and Sparrowhawk
Huddsbirder 