New Year at Benacre & Ness Point

On January 1st 2020, a cloudy start to the morning I arrived at Benacre at 10am, as my tooth was hurting earlier in the day, but the pain had eventually subsided (I decided not to go to Hollesley) so I thought I could just go out locally. Parking up behind a row of cars. It was a pleasant surprise to see Maurice B also parking up. Just leaving was David B and his wife. We walked down saw Kevin B for a quick chat and onto the Benacre Approach fields we saw 15 Brent Geese (including 3 immatures) and 14 Barnacle Geese, a nice start! We also saw Clive N and after a brief chat went on our way back down to the hide. A couple were there in the hide and weren't sure if they had seen the GND just left of the Cormorant on the post in the water over the far western side of the Broad almost at the reeds edge. The couple left and Maurice and I wondered what had happened to the bird, I speculated that it might have swum down the left channel. This assumption proved correct when Maurice said he had it swimming right and we enjoyed distant views of the immature Great Northern Diver constantly diving and fishing and getting at least 2 bits of prey. Also on the far north side of the Broad were 4 Goldeneye (2 adult males, 1 imm male and 1 female). We decided to walk back and bumped into Carl B, who we showed him the GND and he excitedly told us he had seen a EWFG fly onto the sea, flushed by beach walkers it had joined the Brent flock on the Approach fields. I was keen to get there fast the sun was out, but as I reached the fields the sun clouded over again (typical!) It was still there with the 15 Brent Goose and I enjoyed good views of the adult White- fronted Goose, for a few minutes, it seemed wary, and as I looked down at the camera when a group of people walked past and the Goose was gone, it must have been flushed by them and flown off! (The same group of walkers who had flushed it from the beach) The Brents were still there. No sooner had this happened when a big flock of 25 Geese flew overhead and they separated into flocks of 11 White- fronted geese and 14 Barnacle Geese flying south. Around a few minutes later, I saw a flock of 14 Barnacle Geese fly past and south (the same flock from earlier?) A look at Asda Riverside, Lowestoft failed to reveal anything, nothing at Hamilton Dock either, next stop Ness Point and I looked over at the 'finger'/jetty and finally I had a double figure count of 10 Purple Sandpipers feeding at the end. My highest tally of the winter so far and just reward for checking over most days over Christmas! Later on in the afternoon, looking at cars at Lings with Jenny, I casually checked the western edge of the Grain silo and spied 1 Peregrine Falcon perched on the grey cowling hood near the top of the tower. Another good one for the year.