Arrived at 8:30am after a 2 1/2 hour drive down to the sound of Geese and whistling Wigeon, the field adjacent to the car park was full of water, hence the large congregation of wildfowl here. I sat in the car and scanned the field picking out Wigeon, Teal, Mallard, Shoveler, Gadwall, Pintail, Little Egret, Ruffs, Lapwing, Golden Plover, I eventually tore myself away and got my gear together.
I initially stayed near the car park looking thru various waders hoping to see the long staying Lesser Yellowlegs, wasn’t to be my day, and I never connected with the bird at all that day, I did see a Peregrine for my efforts, and great photo opportunities with the Ruffs. I moved on eventually tearing myself away and headed over to the visitor centre to check in, and to find out what had been seen so far, only reports were of Scaup (2♂, 1♀), so my next target were these birds.
It wasn’t long before I got to see the Scaup, soon finding them from the pathway, they were distant, hanging out at the back of the Marsh up against the far reeds, other birds here were Pochard, Tufted Duck, Black headed Gull, Brent Geese, after getting some record shots of the Scaup, I headed out towards the 360° hide, stopping on route to view a group of Goldeneye, these birds were actively displaying to the females present.
Arriving at the 360° hide, I missed out the Reedbed hide as there didn’t seem to be many birds present, there was a lot more happening here, plenty of Avocets, Dunlin, Ruff, Black tailed Godwit, Common Snipe, Redshank, Brent Geese, Lapwing and Golden Plover. I eventually moved on to the east Hide, around this area were more Dunlin, Little Egret, Whooper Swan (1), Reed Bunting.
After the East Hide I decided on making my way back to the Visitor Centre, along the back path, hoping for corn Bunting but only came across a singing Skylark. After a quick snack at the café (coffee and cake) and once again enjoying the Ruff, near the car park area, alas still no Lesser Yellowlegs, I headed off down towards the salt marsh, I had a good scan thru the Teal looking for Green winged but to no avail. At the marsh were Redshank, Meadow Pipit, Little Egret and finally a Marsh Harrier ends the day.
Video of the Day press HERE
Bird List : Avocet, Blackbird, Black headed Gull, Black tailed Godwit, Brent Goose, Canada Goose, Carrion Crow, Cetti’s Warbler, Common Gull, Coot, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunlin, Egyptian Goose, Gadwall, Golden Plover, Goldeneye, Goldfinch, Great Crested Grebe, Grey Heron, Herring Gull, Lapwing, Little Egret, Little Grebe, Magpie, Mallard, Marsh Harrier, Meadow Pipit, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Peregrine, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Pintail, Pochard, Redshank, Reed Bunting, Robin, Ruff, Scaup, Shelduck, Shoveler, Skylark, Snipe, Starling, Teal, Tufted Duck, Whooper Swan, Wigeon, Wren (51)
Huddsbirder 