When the sun comes out!

A sea watch cut short by the weather and nothing much happening apart from a few Brent Geese moving east and a few Gannets and Kittiwakes off shore. The 2w Glaucous Gull was hunkered down in the roost on the beach.
As the weather deteriorated I headed for the reserve and spent a couple of hours in Firth Hide in the company of DW, where we whiled away the time Gull watching, DW checking the colour rings and giving me a masterclass in Gull ID.


yellow-legged Herring Gull

 Leaving the reserve with the weather still abysmal before going to the ARC, a look at the New Diggings found 4+Smew and a soggy Great White Egret. When after an hour in Hanson the rain finally abated a superb drake Goldeneye flew in  and spent most the afternoon feeding and displaying near the hide.  

 As soon as the sun came out for a short spell a movement caught my eye. A superb Bittern stalked out of the reed bed climbed on to a clump and sat in the open preening for the next half hour enabling me take another couple of hundred pictures. What promised to be a pretty poor day birding turned into another brilliant day in the field.  Hopefully I'll upload some more images tomorrow when I have had the time to look at them all.