A year tick on the first visit back

Adjusting to temperature difference remains tough going, 33 degrees to 5-7 is horrible, but I was very keen to get back out to my patch, but knowing the Ruddy Ducks from 2 weeks before were long gone.

I came along for the bird walk and we did the usual BSL route up to the bay nearest to Sandford, counting Goldeneye, at the least 3 males and 4+ females, I wanted to get a better view in between the islands and so we moved to the bank where the path drops down towards Sandford hide and as I began my count again, Richard suddenly said "isn't this a Ruddy nearest to us?" And yes it was, an immature male, swimming and diving, then quickly further away. So needless to say I was very happy, to have not missed a single species in my month away.

There was nothing else really to get excited about, good views of Treecreeper, a nice little flock of 40+ Siskins and 5+ Lesser Redpoll along the Loddon, a Kingfisher, low numbers of Teal, Wigeon, all the ducks in fact, probably 50+ Pochard on Sandford, but think the 5 Goldeneye there were all from BSL.