The weather was sunny and cold; both hindrances to lengthy, focused scanning by the waterside through raft upon raft of ducks to pick out the unusual ones...for example the 2 drake Scaup we had today among several hundred Tufted Ducks and Common Pochards!
We missed out target bird (Great Northern Diver) but we did have 2 Black-throated and 2 Red-throated Loons at one lake (name is disputable among the Saxon birders, hehe) and another single Red-throated at Seelhausener See.
For what the sun did to the visibility on the lakes for finding rare loons, etc., it made up for by seemingly inducing the appearance of winter songbirds in flocks, as summarized in the list below.
Here is a list of highlights:
2 Scaup (both an adult and young male)
2 Wigeon (a pair)
1 Common Scoter
3 Velvet Scoters
1 Red-breasted Merganser (hen, very rare this far from a coastal area!)
18 Smew (scattered sightings of 1-6 birds from several lakes)
30 Goosanders
2 Black-throated Loon
3 Red-throated Loon
2 Rough-legged Hawks
8 Red Kites
1 Sparrow Hawk
2 Kestrels
1 Kingfisher
1 Nuthatch
1 Great Grey Shrike
10+ Mistle Thrush
1 Willow Tit
4+ Goldcrest
1 Reed Bunting
9 Twite (lifer for Ashwin and
me)
300-400 Linnet (single huge
flock!) 3 Common Redpolls
also several flocks of Goldfinch, Greenfinch and Siskin all over.
Good birding to all,
Steve
P.S.: Yesterday morning (Jan 11) I had another flock of Waxwings at Albert Platz in Dresden (though not the same tree); this time it was a large flock of ~50-60! I just heard today of up to 200 were reported from Grosser Garten in Dresden, so I have to get myself there soon, hopefully tomorrow, to investigate.
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