5th Feb - mostly cloudy, light SE, 7C

I visited Stanford reservoir this afternoon, the water level had risen a little due to the recent rain, but they are still dropping the level for maintenance work, the lower water level is ideal for the dabbling duck, Goosander too are at their highest count for several years and yet we still have plenty of diving Duck.  Little Egret numbered 16 and Grey Helen 4.  There were 61 Shoveler, again the highest count for quite awhile.  A small duck flew out of the bay and passed me the other side of willows, at first I thought it was a Teal, but it looked different, I could then see it was a 'redhead' Smew, probably the one seen recently and just been hiding.  I spent some while looking for the Long-tailed Duck too, but could not find it, however just before leaving I had one more scan of the area and there it was.

20+ Tree Sparrows were at the feed station, and ~10 Chaffinch were nearby, generally there seemed few small birds about.  A couple of Goldfinch and ~20 Linnet were around in the tree tops before flying off.