Goldeneye Courtship Display - Freiston Shore

The last time I was in Lincolnshire I was desperately trying to get a photo of the Goldeneye on the lagoons at Freiston Shore. Today they were right in front of the hide. Even better the sun has shone all day. Even betterer (!) they started doing courtship displays!! Not a bad afternoons birding it must be said.

We went to Frampton in the morning. It was packed there. We had a job to park to be honest. We were rewarded with some fantastic views of about ten Yellowhammers in the hedgerow. The scrapes were full of Golden Plovers and Lapwings today, along with plenty of geese.

Freiston provided some handy new year ticks in the shape of a Ringed Plover and Turnstone. But the stars were undoubtedly the Goldeneye.

Incidentally, if you wondering what the connection between the bird Goldeneye and the James Bond film then you need to know that Ian Fleming was a keen birdwatcher. In fact, James Bond is named after a rather famous ornithological author.

As Brucey bonus, I have uploaded a 1 minute video of the Goldeneye doing it's neck stretching and generally showing off to the girls on YouTube. You can find it by clicking this link!