Sailing by

The upside down pylon is testament to the fact that here is a black-throated diver in the wrong place, on a small reservoir just outside Lancaster. I diverted to see it on my way back from being punctured. Here it was giving us sustained views while going through its yoga routine.

The bird has been there for a few days at least, commuting from the reservoir to the coast for the night. We wouldn't normally expect to see one of these on an inland water in Lancashire in the winter, or indeed at any time of the year.

In the afternoon we went to see another bird in the wrong place at the wrong time, a little stint feeding on a flooded field near Heversham. It was with a few hundred dunlins, and making those small waders look big by comparison. We don't see a lot of waders at the top end of the Kent estuary apart from lapwings, oystercatchers and redshanks, and we don't usually see little stints in the Winter as they are normally Spring and Autumn passage birds.

The year list moved on to 107.

Back-blipped on Saturday 27 January, 2018