Sunday 15th: Not planning to do any Birding this weekend, Sunday dawned a sunny but cold day and an unplanned trip to Sheffield was on. I have never seen a Waxwing and currently, there is a population invasion from Scandinavia. A quick drive to Sheffield and the location that I had, produced nothing! Next time I will be armed with several locations. I am determined to see at least one Waxwing before the end of the year! The website http://www.sbsg.org/ looks a good place for picking up sightings. So determined that my trip out was not totally wasted, I drove on up to Thrybergh CP near Rotherham.
A small country park where there is a lake with various waterfowl. Plenty of Mallards, Coots and Canada Geese not to mention the ever predsent Black-headed Gulls. But what caught my eye was a unusual goose, the type of which I had never known existed, let alone seen! It turns out that this goose is called a Swan Goose (Anser cygnoides). Originally from China/Mongolia, its possible that this is an escapee. It seemed 'at home' with the other waterfowl and a Greylag Goose spent alot of time in its company. Several Lapwings came in from the surrounding fields. There were also large numbers of hybrid Mallards as the photos show. Apparently Mallards routinely cross breed with other ducks. At the car park, 3 Mistle Thrushes and a female Bullfinch were in the trees, but not much else was seen. A very quiet day!
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