What a lovely end to a beautiful day this evening, with a 12,000 strong starling roost and a great sunset over the reserve! The birds treated me to a spectacular display as always, with the full roost of around 12,000 birds in the air at once over Phase 2, only dropping into the reedbed at around 4.30 as it was getting too dark to see.
Other records from today include a female red crested pochard on Phase 2 among the usual wildfowl - the first on site for nearly three years, sparrowhawk over silt lagoon 6, 3 curlew feeding on Phase 3 and still loads of lapwings crammed onto what land is left in the middle of Phase 2.
And if you needed any confirmation of how nice the weather has been today and yesterday - it was 16C at Beckingham yesterday afternoon (3rd January!) and here is the sunset from this evening over Langford.