Bird Lover

After this morning's terrible rain and gale force winds, the weather was a little better in the afternoon.  The hardy souls were rewarded with a 3 minute sighting of this Bittern first spotted by Deborah.  The reserve warden studied on photo, and this is his considered opinion about the individual shown: Probably a young(ish) male - fairly uniform bill colouration, vague suggestion of grey/blue on cere. Bittern   Ditto

Friday was the only day the groups didn't go to Tophill Low.  We went to Ness End Farm instead.  As we walked to the first hide we noticed a flock of a dozen Long-tailed Tits flying along the hedge.  There was just time to snatch a few images of these little missiles.  A Cetti's Warbler was heard singing briefly, the only time we heard this species during the day.   From the first hide there were a few ducks, and a female Goldeneye provided much consternation.  The walk along the arch of hawthorns resulted in 3 Greenfinches, which may have been attracted by the garden feeders beyond.  There were quite a few Tufted Ducks, Shoveler, Teal and Little Grebes on Decoy Lake.  There didn't appear to be much at Chowder Ness apart from some Wigeon, and even these appeared to have gone by the afternoon.  A walk along the riverbank resulted in a pair of confiding Goldfinches, and then we saw Bullfinches when we got into the reser...

On Tuesday we had to switch to Tophill Low because extremely strong winds were forecast.  We encountered 52 species south of the D Reservoir area.  That is a record figure for this term in only 2 hours.  Birds we saw included: Glaucous Gull (lifer for all), 2 Pintail, drake Goosander, Kingfisher, Siskin, Marsh Tit, 2 Marsh Harriers, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Crested Grebe, Pochard, Shoveler, Shelduck, Teal, Gadwall, Wigeon, Curlew, Redshank, Cetti's Warbler (h), Water Rail (h), 2 Sparrowhawks chasing each other, Kestrel & Fieldfare.      Male Siskin  Female Siskin  Silhouette of Marsh Harrier  Drake Goosander  Record shot of Pair of Pintail  Drake Pintail  Record shot of Glaucous Gull  Ditto  Fox    Ditto Wednesday's classes were also changed to Tophill Low.  Again, the morning group saw 52 species, although extra species this time incl: a Black-tailed Godwit, Lesser Redpolls, and Go...