Foot It - update 6th Jan

Mute Swan - at last!

My original plan for today was to follow the River Derwent in to Matlock and back, aiming for Snipe, Peregrine and Kingfisher. However, reports of up to 10 Hawfinch at Cromford Meadows was too good to miss so I added on the extra miles, and consequently increased my chances of Kingfisher, or so I thought.
I made a good start with Snipe by the A6 and arrived at Cromford just in time to see 13 Hawfinch flying off down the valley so no chance of a photo.

Wigeon - male and female

A chance meeting with Cromford birder Clive Ashton and a discussion about the species I was missing led to Clive directing me to Cromford Pond for Mute Swan, a species I had almost given up on having failed to find the usual pair north of Rowsley. Whilst at Cromford Pond I noticed a couple of duck flying over quite high and assumed they would be Mallard, but they did look rather slim - a pair of Wigeon which was quite unexpected they circled the pond once and headed off in the Carsington Reservoir direction.

So four additional species today takes me to 69 which is 96% of my estimated total of 72 for the month. Still missing Peregrine and no sign of Kingfisher at all today which was disappointing. Clive has still being seeing Waxwings by the Enthoven Plant at Darley Bridge and Ken Smith has had several sightings of Crosbill and Woodcock over the weekend and I'm sure a Lesser Black-backed Gull will fly over the house before the end of the month so still a few species to aim for.