Our bird of the week left it late to put in an appearance but the Great Northern Diver found on the morning of the 9th was certainly a welcome addition to the year list. Usually it takes a stomp out to the mouth of the Witham and even then only glimpses are caught as they bob around in the swell or fly away from you without offering a glance back. Seen from the comfort of the Freiston Hide it ventured around the lagoon, diving frequently and coming on quite close to the hide as it moves around.
Great Northern Diver - Paul Sullivan
Jostling for top place on the interest scale was a much more unusual candidate, so much so it took us quite a while to identify it. When we did put a name to it we didn't feel too bad about it not being on the tip of our tongue seeing as they're usually found over 9,000 miles away! If you're curious to know what it was....... check out Chris's blog.
This wasn't the only unusual water bird seen this week, I found this on the wet grassland and tentatively think it may well be a Canada Goose x Barnacle Goose hybrid. Thoughts and comments welcomed.
A goose thing - Toby Collett
With last week being a very blustery affair, the conditions were much more settled this week and a stroll around the reserve was a much more pleasant experience. Adding to the good weather was the fantastic birding on offer. The 7 Snow Bunting and 2 Scaup remained on the reedbed, the former proving to be no less elusive and mobile as last year and the latter being just as lazy as ever. I think in the last three weeks I've only seen them not snoozing twice! Oh for the life of a Scaup sometimes. A single Jack Snipe was found tucked in to the middle scrape bank adjacent to the path to 360 hide on the 6th, though this was trumped by a brace reported from the Freiston lagoon on the far shore opposite the hide. Between 30-40 Whooper Swans are now regularly roosting on the scrapes so pop down just before dark if you want a chance of seeing and hearing them before they return North.
On the 8th I got a text from one of our regulars letting me know he had seen 8 species of birds of prey that morning alone!! The salt marsh is the place to scan for all (hen harrier, marsh harrier, kestrel, merlin. peregrine, Sparrowhawk and Buzzard) but one of the raptors, with the trees on Marsh Farm holding the secret 8th, Little Owl.
Away from these New Year niceties, things were pretty stable with good numbers and great scenes as thousands of birds carpeted the wet grassland. I appreciate that it's hard to visualise this spectacle so I had a play with my new 'phone-to-scope' attachment and got some panoramas to try, but not quite achieve, giving a feel for the numbers.
I wasn't able to stitch the above three images together but they all follow on from each other. There is no real best time to appreciate and marvel at the number of birds, but an hour or two before sunset is often when they get mobile and start to fly around the reserve preparing to roost. The sights and sounds of thousands of birds whooshing and scattering across the sky above you is impossible to put into words so I will try and get a video next week and share it. In the mean time it's worth going one better and getting down to experience it for yourself. The weather looks promising this weekend so make sure we're top of the list for a visit or an afternoon stroll to walk off your Sunday lunch.
The more you're out the more you see - https://twitter.com/BoyWonderBirder