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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JWN Andrewes" data-source="post: 3674888" data-attributes="member: 7131">February 4th: part IIIWay out beyond the Smew, on the far side of the pit, was a tidy congregation of Barnacle Geese, along with a handful of Egyptian, both of which I’m assuming are perfectly acceptable in a rather grubby Cat C sort of way. A couple of hides later and we’d racked up an impressive number of common ducks (never seen so many Gadwall), and I decided it was worth seeing how the light was back in Grebe Hide, but quickly changed plan on checking news, with the American Wigeon now being reported on Lagoon V within the last half hour. A brisk walk past the visitor centre, and on down to the 360 Hide, from where we were soon admiring a fine drake American Wigeon. This is a species we’ve missed before, so was greeted with much enthusiasm, and has been heavily rhapsodised since. Eventually the lure of ham baps back in the car drew us away, with a brief drop in at the feeding station rewarding us with an even briefer drop in by a Marsh Tit. After a late lunch we headed off to scan the North Arm of the reservoir from various vantage points which was a good deal more time consuming than it was productive, but after having banked the day’s main targets decided we could bear the absence of Great Northern Diver and Black-necked Grebes from the day list and headed home. There’s plenty of year left, and it was a school night after all.</blockquote>