Saturday November 12th

Alvecote Pools
The Great White Egret and a Ruff today (Roy Smith).

Kingsbury WP
Hemlingford Water The first-winter male Scaup still present with 22 Pochard and 7 Goldeneye (Tom Perrins).

Middleton RSPB
Staffs: 2 Great White Egret, a Knot, 4 Dunlin, 260 Golden Plover, 3 Shelduck , 5 Goldeneye and a Stonechat (Steve Atkinson et al).

The egret roost was accurately counted this evening by Steven Pick, stationed on the Dosthill Lake bund. Similar to last evening only 25 roosted in the willows at east end of Jubilee and the day-feeding Great White roosted there at 1626 hrs. A second Great White Egret came off the pools to the north and headed towards the heronry at Middleton Hall at 1603 hrs. The roost there may be picking up the rest of the ca. 40 Little Egrets now......Thanks Steven

Wishaw
585 Golden Plover. This is the best count of the winter thus far (Carl Hiles).

Today is a good day in the Valley and over the years has produced 2-3 Bearded Tits at Ladywalk (1978), a three week staying Red-necked Grebe at Dosthill Lake (1995) and a Long-tailed Duck at Shustoke (1988). In 1978, I highlighted 13 Gadwall as noteworthy; how times have changed.