Sunday 18th December - Pennington Flash

Another trip to Bent's Garden Centre and another visit to Pennington.

Bumped into Dave and Gill Higginson-Tranter, both recovering from winter aflictions, but their species list was already 48, including the Long-tailed Duck and a pair of Scaup, all of which eluded us again.

Saw the Water Rail again at Pengys hide:

Water Rail (Rallus aquaticus)

Water Rail (Rallus aquaticus)

Teal hide was particularly good, with Mallard, Coot, Goosander, Teal a few Wigeon and a Little Egret also dropped in - not a common occurrence. The Bittern of course was keeping quiet and out of sight.

Also bumped into Dennis Atherton (who has given us excellent talks), and he showed us a Yellow-legged Gull amongst Lesser Black-backed and Herring Gulls, from Horrock's hide. Even with a scope and a knowledgeable and helpful consultant, we had to admit difficulty in identifying.

Cathy and Mike Pettipher