Thursday November 24th

Alvecote Pools
Warks: Great White Egret on Gilman's Pool.
Staffs: Great White Egret near The Pigs (Roy Smith).

Ladywalk NR
A Short-eared Owl this evening, hunting along the river (Pete Sofley).

Middleton RSPB
Staffs: Goldeneye; 8 on Dosthill NR and 4 on Jubilee. 3 male Pintails on North Pit. Also a Stonechat, 4 Goosanders, 100 Golden Plovers and Cetti's Warbler in the Staffs pits. Only 11 Little Egrets went to roost at Jubilee Wetlands this evening.
Warks: Early today, 24 Little Egrets left the heronry roost at Middleton Hall. 60 Fieldfares, a Cetti's and a Siskin in the Fisher's Mill area later
(All info from RSPB, Steve Atkinson & Steven Pick).

In 1981 a drake Falcated Duck was present at this time on Hemlingford Water, KWP. It appeared amongst an obvious arrival of Wigeon on October 25th and remained until December 6th. The arrival with Wigeon has been recorded previously for this possible admission to the BOU list and this individual was widely twitched at the time. In those days that meant a few people from Norfolk made the effort.This species could still be admitted to the British list making this one of the best birds ever in the Tame Valley.