A Change Of Plan

Originally it was my intention to have a look on the sea this morning but Gail said that she fancied going out as well. Now Gail doesn't mind a bit of birding but I know she would draw the line at seawatching! Also I was glad that I hadn't gone seawatching because when Ian called for a coffee this afternoon he said it had been really quiet on the sea, even though it was quite blowy over night and it had rained, the usual ingredients for some action on the sea!

Gail and I decided to have a look on the estuary, but even though we didn't see much (there's a reoccurring theme here!) it was a pleasant couple of hours. The Hawthorn scrub and the reedbed didn't hold anything on our walk down; no Thrushes in the Hawthorns and no calling Water Rails from the reedbed. We didn't really see anything of note until we got to the saltmarsh and had a Little Egret. I love seeing Little Egrets and they still seem exotic to me, maybe it's because I'm of an age when they used to be bl**dy rare and if one turned up a twitch would ensue!

 Little Egret

On the pool were nine Little Grebes, nine Tufted Ducks and two Goldeneyes. As we walked along the path to the spit where I look over the mudflats on the estuary from, an immature male Sparrowhawk flew in front of us hugging the path in his search for avian prey.

I didn't scrutinise the estuary, rather I had a fairly quick counting scan with my scope, and had 20 Redshanks, 50 Mallards, 500 Lapwings, 185 Wigeon and 15 Teal. A Rock Pipit called and flew past along the saltmarsh and then on the way back we had a party of ten Long-tailed Tits in the Hawthorns.

The forecast is looking good for some ringing on either Tuesday or Wednesday this week, so hopefully I'll get my first session in at my farmland bird feeding station. I'll let you know how I get on.