In between two bouts of patching, Ian and I nipped over to Bromley for this female
Long-tailed Duck.
A London tick. A cute bird, it spent most of its time at the back of
the small trout fishing lake but came closer to rest and preen. At one
point it was spooked by a
Little Grebe and did a circuit of the
lake, almost crashing into us as it reached our side! Too quick to get
the camera out for that bit, though.
We found a Firecrest along the track back to the car, too. This was followed by a good search for one in Banstead Woods (Ian still needs it for the patch) but we found little. Patch pickings are lean of late but blimey it is nearly December - didn't the autumn go quick?
