7 March 2024 - Hollingworth Lake

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Drake Pochard, 5 Pintail, 2 Little Gulls

What a cracking morning! A message came through from Andrew on the WhatsApp group of a drake Pochard associating with some Goosander, so I set off on my pre-work walk with some anticipation. The water was quite choppy with a fair breeze and I was scanning mid water trying to locate the Pochard when I notice a small group of ducks that I couldn't quite make out with just my bins. Getting the camera's zoom on them however proved them to be Pintail - a group of 5, including three drakes!

They seemed to be closer to the far bank so I set off to try to get a little closer, and then as I reached the reserve area, spotted the Goosander and the drake Pochard with them. I took some photos of the Pochard and then hot-footed it round to the Pavilion area. Luckily the Pintail were still present, and as I watched they took off and flew around a couple of times, allowing me to get some flight shots.

I spent some time trying for photos of them on the water but they split up into a pair and a group of three, so I couldn't get them all in frame at once. I did find a drake Wigeon though, visible from here but nearer to the Rowing Club area. Eventually I had to move on.

There were quite a few Black-headed Gulls on the water and it just felt like a good day for a Kittiwake, so I was scanning through the Black-headeds when suddenly I noticed that two of the closest gulls were actually Little Gulls! It's probably 30 (maybe 40) years since I've seen Little Gull at the lake, so I make no apology for including lots of photos! The ones last year I missed, because we were in Florida.

Anyway, I took far too many photos and eventually had to leave them behind as I was going to be late for work. Not long after, Simon called me to ask where they were, as he was on the other side of the water, but although I gave him directions, sadly they must have moved on by the time he got there. Simon did have two drake Pochard however.

Pintail , 1/500 sec, f/7.1, 500 mm, ISO 320 (view full size image)