Covenham And Donna.....

Covenham Reservoir

Golden Waxcap

Grey Phalorope

With the prospect of a decent days weather and the hope that some of the weeks goodies may still be present after yesterdays deluge,Dave and myself made our way to the coast at Donna Nook stopping en-route and on the way home at the excellent Covenham Reservoir.Our first visit to the reservoir from 07.00-09.45 produced some good sightings,with the highlight being my first Slavonian Grebe this year and it showed very well in the early morning sun,a lovely bird,with it's striking red eye.Other highlights included my latest Swift record for a long time,with 2 watched feeding along the east bank,giving superb views,with other minor highlights in the form of a female Pintail,2 Wheatear,Black-tailed Godwit,14 Siskin and a Kingfisher.On our second visit on the way home,we added two more goodies in the form of a cracking Grey Phalorope,which showed typically well and a far more elusive adult Red-necked Grebe,which showed more distantly,but still nice all the same.At Donna Nook we put in some serious effort,walking all the way down beyond Pye's Hall along the developing foreshore out towards Grainthorpe and then back all the way to the RAF base and we were pretty successfull adding Barred Warbler,Great-grey Shrike and Wryneck.The Barred Warbler,showed very well in the garden adjacent to Stonebridge car park and was watched munching on Elderberries and sunning itself,a lovely bird and my fifth of the autumn so far!.The Great-grey was watched feeding along a hawthorn hedge between Stonebridge and Pye's Hall and we saw it perched atop the hedge and mobbing and chasing a Magpie,great stuff.Unfortunately,the Wryneck was only seen in flight twice,as we inadvertantly flushed it on two occasions along the newly developing foreshore out from Pye's Hall,my first in Lincolnshire for many years.Other goodies included at least 52 Lapland Bunting,this autumn/winter period is going to be an exceptional one for them,Juv. Peregrine,2 Snow Bunting,12 Wheatear and my first Dark-bellied Brent Geese of the autumn,with 137 being recorded.Non-bird highlights today included,a handfull of Common Darter and Migrant Hawker,Small White,Small Copper,Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock butterflies.A cracking day out with some great company through the day.