Flying Visits

A prior family commitment made short my time for birding today, but I still managed a couple of flying visits to sites close to my home, late this afternoon.

Not the most pleasant of days weather wise with dark grey skys and the ever present threat of rain, but I really wanted to check out a sighting I had made Wednesday evening...

The sighting in question was of a rare visitor to these parts the Barnacle Goose.

This lone bird flew into Etherow Park about a week or so back and he seems to have made himself at home.

How long the new arrival will stick around for is anybodies guess, but Etherow has a habit of attracting unusual species of wildfowl and many of them decide to stay for good.

My other stop today was at a location even closer to my home which is home to a pair of Little Owls.

This pair show very well some days and not at all others...Today unfortunately was the latter!

These little Owls are to be the first species of a little project I've set myself for the year...In fact I've set myself two bird related challenges this year and I shall post the details of both at a later date!

Although disappointed at not seeing the Owls today, the walk back across the fields did provide pretty decent views of a group of 3 Lapwing who were digging around in the mud for morsels.

Always nice to see Lapwing in their traditional farmland habitat...