Whoop of Delight

Whooper & mute swan

Another gorgeous day with bright sunlight and only a bit of a cool breeze. Better still, a day off and a couple of hours free to get out and check the patch this morning.

Despite my obvious enthusiasm, Aldcliffe hasn't really been at its best this autumn and I suspect that it will pretty much remain this way until we get some serious temperature changes.
The pools are still bereft of wildfowl in any number, just the usual mallard, teal and handful of gadwall to see most days along with the odd little grebe and multiple coot and moorhen. 

The geese seem to have had their fill of the stubble for now and were back out on the marsh. Consequently the only things poking around in the maize fields were pheasants, woodpigeons, carrion crows and jackdaws. 
Even the large finch/sparrow flock had whittled down to around 20 chaffinch and a couple each of tree sparrow and reed bunting. Just 3 skylark were flying around.

Whooper swan

I was delighted to finally find a whooper swan among the mute swans out on Aldcliffe Marsh - it was surely only a matter of time before one dropped in!
Scanning through the Canada geese and greylags I couldn't see anything else among them, bar the usual snow goose-on-the-loose and the regular farmyard honkers.

An unexpected sighting involved a late small tortoiseshell fluttering over the tideline.