By amazing coincidence after saying to Bill Myerscough this morning that it had been 11 years since seeing my last Whoopers at Watergrove, a party of 5 birds was on the resr this afternoon at 16:30 hrs. They took flight south at 16:55 hrs and may have gone to roost either on Clegg Hall Pools or Hollingworth Lake, so it may be worth checking for them in the morning. There was a report in the Hollingworth Lake Visitor centre log book of 5 on 30th October. So it is possible that they have been somewhere in the area over the last few days. It was good of them to wait until the start of Atlas recording before putting in their appearance, and nice to know that they will appear on the map when the Atlas is eventually published.
Also at Watergrove two Woodcock in the plantations on the west side of the resr.