Broom GPs

A final visit of the year to Broom that started off well with plenty of movement overhead. The plan was to spend a little longer here today to check the waterbodies for winter wildfowl.  It was a lovely morning, not too cold, and with high cloud pierced by the low winter sun.

The Goosander from yesterday had disappeared so we were back to normal for wildfowl counts albeit with the usual fluctuations in numbers.  Across the lakes  68 Wigeon, 13 Shoveler, 14 Gadwall, 13 Teal, 13 Tufted Duck, 10 Great Crested Grebe, and a single Pochard represented reasonable mid-winter numbers.  A total of 157 Coot were present on the main lake.  112 Black headed Gull, 33 Common Gull, and 2 brief adult Herring Gull were congregated on GLE.

A Peregrine shot through over GLE sending everything skyward before disappearing off to the east.

The real surprise came in the form of an adult winter Little Gull that was associating with the Black headed Gull on the main lake. It didn't appear to hang around for too long but was a good December record nonetheless.

Other noteworthy sightings were a pair of Stonechat on the North side, around 30 Linnet, 14 Skylark, 20 Redwing, five Grey Partridge, and singles of Grey Wagtail and Yellowhammer.

A decent group of Lapwing swirled around with a total count of 255.