Redhead – Bleasby Gravel Pits, Bleasby, Nottinghamshire, 15th March 1996
The news of the Redhead in deepest Nottinghamshire was unfortunately not revealed until Saturday the 9th March 2006. As I was already in South Queensferry with my ex-, Gilly, I couldn’t quite bring myself to journey down to Nottinghamshire again over the course of what was left of the weekend, so soon after my previous trip there (for the Cedar Waxwing on the 23rd February 2006). I decided to make the most of my weekend at home. This conviction was briefly swayed when Chris McGuigan phoned on the Sunday afternoon and suggested he was going down for it and all the other good stuff, Black-throated Thrush, Cedar Waxwing, etc.. However, the allure was brief and disappeared altogether when a 04:00 start on Monday morning was suggested. I therefore declined the offer, partly as I realised that behind this was an attempt to get me to take my car.
So, on the Monday, as had been arranged, I ‘phoned Mark Hannay, my birding landowner friend from this time, when I was in Galloway working on the Scotland to Northern Ireland Pipeline Project, about a night out at his place, Cardoness, to look at each other’s holiday photographs from our respective recent trips. I suggested that circumstances had changed somewhat, and Mark indicated that he would be interested in going for it with me. We developed a formative plan, which was further developed on the Tuesday night, but I was still surprised that he was able to get away early on Friday the 15th March. This strategy was confirmed on Thursday night, and so we were able to set off at c.10:30 on the Friday morning. After stops at the post office and bank in Gatehouse-of-Fleet, and the printers in Dumfries, we made our way to Bleasby in Nottinghamshire, arriving by late afternoon.
After a false start – walking alongside the wrong pit, and worse, the terrible stringing by me of one of the two Pochards on it, we were redirected to the Jubilee Pit. We drove back into the village, walked to the pit, and were confronted by some 50 Pochards moving away from us, amongst which Mark quickly located a slightly bigger, ‘odder’ version whilst I opted to put up my ‘scope, although I had glimpsed such a bird as I scanned.
We enjoyed, more or less to ourselves, the bird for some 20 minutes or so as it dived amongst the flock, bringing up large amounts of weed. It was distinctly, surprisingly so, different, bigger and bulkier, with a basically similar overall plumage pattern, except for darker grey flanks and upperparts. The head was rounder, the eye yellow rather than red, and the bill was distinctively marked.
