Having spent the last week birding in south Lincs (Great Grey Shrike at Folkingham), farthest north Lincs (Great Grey Shrike at Wroot) and two sites in Nottinghamshire (Drake Smew at Cotham, near Newark and also one on Blott's Pit, Holme Pierrepont near Nottingham), I thought I would restrict my birding (and driving) today (Monday) to the Lincoln area......and what better target bird than Goosander.
I started my Goosander trip at Riseholme Hall Lake (just N of Lincoln) where I had drawn a blank on 17 December with the lake being iced-up. Today I had more luck and located the recently reported group of 5 Goosander - 3 drakes and 2 females, as viewed from near Riseholme Hall itself.
Boultham Park Lake, Lincoln was my next destination, where the Goosander flock has varied between 5 and 15 this last month or so and where I had seen 14 in mid-November. Today I located just 3.......2 drakes and 1 female.
Swanholme was my 3rd site and where Chris Grimshaw and I had separately reported 32 in mid-December.....19 drakes and 13 females. I walked the length of Coot Lake along the railway track side and located the Goosanders at the Coot Minor end near Doddington Road. There were 12 in all : 8 drakes and 4 females.
So, the day's total was 20 in the 3 locations.
Freddy.
PS. I had started the day at McDonalds, Outer Circle Road, Lincoln .....just in case, but there was nothing to report re a returning lone Bombycilla garrulus.
