The years first spoonbills

Fantastic to see the first spoonbills arriving this week with one bird yesterday and then two together on Ousefleet this morning during high tide, in fact the pool had a very dutch feel about it as there were avocets and ruffs with marsh harriers in the background over the reeds and then the Konik ponies grazing the grassland - just like I suspect the Oveerstplassen but on a much smaller scale!

Spoonbills today on Ousefleet - nice head plumes!

There has been some nice waders around although not much sign of any passage at the moment, but to add to the ruff and avocets there has been some great summer plumage black-tailed godwits, plenty of snipe, curlew and redshank as well as a pair of oystercatcher. 

Some of the waders have been giving cracking views!

Mating avocets - Ola!

Summer plumage black-tailed godwits are hard to beat - this one's not quite in full plumage but its still a cracker

Our lovely male curlew preening - you can see how the plumage is changing more chestnut from the last blogs photos

Ruff

Oystercatchers 

And how about this sun bathing snipe! if you look at the tail you can see the larger feather near the body, this is used to make the drumming (bleating) sound when they fly through the air in display

The marsh harriers have been even in the foul weather of yesterday evening being just amazing with at times over 10 birds in the sky all at once and some individuals coming very close indeed to the hides. Only one sighting of the hen harrier this week but do double check some of the male marshes that are very white indeed. There is also regular buzzard, sparrowhawk and the odd kestrel around. 

You can get much better photo's of the harriers than this!

Migrants continue to trickle in, I should say that it is only the 5th April so it is still incredibly early so the variety is quite astounding for the time of year, this morning there were the first yellow wagtails with two at Ousefleet, while yesterday saw the first house martin, there has also been at least two sedge warblers singing alongside blackcaps, and chiffchaffs while the odd swallow and a few sand martins trickle through in the cold easterly winds.  

Lots of resident bird activity particularly the cettis warblers that are showing as well as belting out their distinctive song, also plenty of tree sparrow activity and nice to see the lotties (long-tailed tits) building their nests around site. 

The stock doves are in particularly nice plumage at the moment

There has been a few bearded tits around the lagoon edges recently as they feed on the insects to build up their strength before breeding. Although I can't promise you views like this it was good to see plenty of beardies on site as I carried out my breeding bird survey in mid week.

This female was begging to be fed by the male - this helps pair bond and build up egg laying ability

The male was nearby

Duck numbers have fluctuated but still a good number on site for the time of year with plenty of teal (200) and shoveler, plus a few gadwall, shelduck, coot, moorhen, mallard, and a lone pink footed goose paired with a greylag (if they have young it will be interesting!). Plenty of little grebes around but just the odd occasional little egret. 

Pink-footed goose on Singleton

And a flotilla of greylags - many lost their eggs in the high tide

This Lesser black-backed gull wasn't that popular on Marshland with the Black -headed gulls!

There were also up to three goldeneye mid-week but they seem to have gone east!

The reserve is certainly looking good for the weekend! But as you drive to the reserve look out for corn corn buntings that are returning to their territories, these were just some of the 21 I saw the other day near Crowle.