Carsington Water in Derbyshire was to be the place to be today, the attraction for me today was Red throated, and Great Northern Divers plus a female Ring necked Duck. I arrived at about 9:30am, on a cold but sunny day, plus a bit of wind.
I parked in the Carsington Water Visitor Centre car park which is just of the dam road at what3words (perfume,reclined,rotations), the car parking cost, as of date, free for 15mins, up to 1 hour £2, up to 2 hours £3.50, up to 4 hours £6, and over 4 hours £7 with pay on departure.
The visitor centre is right next to stones Island, where all three target birds were hanging out. I decided on looking for the female Ring necked Duck first, this was around by the sailing club area, which unfortunately you are not allowed to enter, but the bird was viewable from Sones Island, but distant. There were a couple of other birders there when I arrived, so got on to the bird fairly quickly, not good views however, to it snoozing, so I decided on looking for the divers, then come back for better views.
It only took five minutes to get around to where I could view a good area of water and was soon on to the Red throated Diver, due to a guy putting me on to it, this one was very distant, but alas no Great Northern, other birds seen here were Goldeneye, Tufted Duck, Black headed Gull, Cormorant, Pochard, Great Crested Grebes, and Little Grebes.
After about 45 minutes here I moved on back to the sailing club area, the Ring necked Duck was now awake and giving better views, but still distant, other birds here were, Wigeon, Little Grebes, Great Crested Grebes, Pochard, Mallard, Tufted Duck and a couple of distant Red Kites, and a fly over Sparrowhawk, I spent a lot of time here, getting other birders and non-birders on to the bird, however when I got news of the Great Northern Diver having been found again, I was off, it was near to the spot where the Red throated Diver was, there was a guy still there watching it, and with his help I was on to it at last, and once again this bird was distant too.
I decided having seen all three target birds to visit the Sheepwash area, a lovely hide down here, whilst walking down to it I had a couple of fly over Ravens, there wasn’t nothing here that I hadn’t already seen, the last port of call was the Paul Stanley hide, and again all birds distant, none water birds of the day were Blackbirds, Blue Tit, Pied Wagtail, House Sparrow, Robin, Song Thrush, Wren, Long tailed Tit, all mainly around Stone Island
Video of the Day can be seen HERE
Bird List : Black headed Gull, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Common Gull, Coot, Cormorant, Goldeneye, Great Crested Grebe, Great Northern Diver, Grey Heron, House Sparrow, Lapwing, Lesser Black Backed Gull. Little Grebe, Long tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Pied Wagtail, Raven, Red throated Diver, Redwing, Ring necked Duck, Robin, Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk, Teal, Tufted Duck, Wigeon, Wren (31) 103/200
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