Back to the Marsh

The 2 Whooper Swans were still in the Kale field at Midley, in the hedgerows 15+ Tree Sparrows, 25+ Fieldfare and 4 Mistle Thrushes. At Scotney the plastic Barnacle Geese were looking very smart in the morning sun with c150 Wigeon, c400 Lapwing, 1 Redshank and a Marsh Harrier over the Maize Field despite all the disturbance from the gravel excavations. 

In a couple of visits a large part of the day was spent in Hanson Hide at the ARC hoping the sunshine would entice the Penduline Tit out, but no luck. A Water Rail showed briefly with a couple of others squealing near by, a Bittern gave a couple of fly pasts as did a Peregrine and Marsh Harrier. A Kingfisher flew up and down a couple of times looking for a perch, it settled for a while on the nearest available perch to the hide (not exactly frame filling, it could so easily be so much better). A Goldeneye flew in and the first Smew of the winter appeared in front of us. A brief visit to the reserve found the Long-tailed Duck from Dennis's hide and a Great White Egret from the visitor centre(King Squacco had seen 4 Great whites on Burrowes).

 On the beach a Yellow-legged Gull posed on a shed roof, a one legged Turnstone posed in the puddle with the Glaucous Gull. At sea a few Kittiwakes, a single Common Scoter on the sea and Little Gull was off shore. In a late afternoon visit to Springfield Bridge with MH 2 Marsh Harriers were seen but little else.