near misses

in the last 10 days there have been rather too many near misses which seem to offer bad omens for the patch list; just up the estuary a Glaucous Gull has been roosting on Read's Island and heading off south-west to feed; an Iceland Gull on the same tip may also have been roosting within sight of the patch on RI; I managed to miss the short staying Mandarin which was photod two weeks back and on Sunday a Kittiwake flew west at Alkborough no doubt having passed through the Barton territorial zone; also in the last two days there have been some odd March waders in the area with 23 Grey Plovers at Alkborough and 2 flying west towards my patch while I was at Goxhill yesterday along with 16 Bar-tailed Godwits; the number of Goldeneye on the patch ponds has increased to 115 as the New Holland flock starts to disperse but the Velvet Scoter which has been with them all winter has so far failed to be attracted to the patch as have the 14 Whoopers which have also spent the winter within scope range just down the Humber at New Holland. 

With some Firecrests on the coast I checked all the singing Goldcrests yesterday but to no avail so my only recent addition has been to put Mediterranean Gull on the self found year list with a first summer on Waters' Edge on Sunday and presumably the same bird on the foreshore yesterday--photo above;

So the year list sticks on 112 and the self found list rises to 110----