Heavy Rain!

A quiet hour and bit until the rain set in at the Fishing boats this morning, being joined by PT and Barney. 

A few Gannets, Kittiwakes and Auks tooing and froing, 2 Red-throated Divers east, 17 Common Scoter, 15 Brent Geese, a Red-breasted Merganser and 39 Dunlin west.

The Lighthouse garden seemed devoid of avian life in the now heavy rain.

A Great White Egret could be seen on New Diggings from the causeway.

At Scotney the Long-tailed Duck could be seen from the double bends at the Sussex end of the lake.  

On the reserve I made the dash from the visitor centre to Makepiece getting another soaking but it was definitely worth it.

A Black-necked Grebe riding the wavelets, a Raven flew over the lake, a party of c30 Pintail and 12 Shelduck was good. While scanning the dabblers a party of c50 Coot started to scoot across my vision, looking up from my scope to see what caused this commotion I could see a Marsh Harrier that appeared to sitting on the lake. I fired off a couple of shots through the closed window, then quickly opened it to record what happened next. (See below)

Black-necked Grebe surfing on Burrowes!

Pounce and Grab! (Taken from Makepiece through a rain spattered window)

Lift out by the head (a now open window)

Heavier than expected?

Slip from grasp!

A lucky escape!

What just Happened to me?

A few ruffled feathers!

Head for the bank and safety.

On the ARC from Hanson, a Goldeneye was the only bird of note. A wander around the Willow Trail found 2 Water Rails and a Chiffchaff, while trying to get a better look at the Chiffy a Jack Snipe flushed from under my feet.
Another visit to the ARC late afternoon when the rain had stopped found a Great White Egret and a couple of Little Egrets of note.