Well that was a fun day... not that I ventured beyond the drawbridge today other than a quick pre-work look at the west end of the seawall where no Shorties were seen but a Woodcock did careen past and several Rock Pipits came up from the salt marsh. I was also glad for the first time to have actually put shoes on rather than sandals!

The sunrise was pretty good and worth the chill start...

The rest of the day was spent in the centre giving weather advice to visitors and volunteers alike. It was a day of change with squally showers and skudding clouds, blue skies and cloudless vistas and at one point the most astonishing torrential maelstrom that hit the building (and some of the Friday Walk) like a fast left hook complete with whirling blades of phragmites leaf and small stones and grit. The sound was unreal.

THE Rain - Alasdair Wilcock

And despite all this there was some good birding to be had with at least six Water Pipits being seen on the various scrapes along with both Scandinavian Rock and Meadow Pipits and countless Pied Wagtails. As yesterday, many of them were keeping Ian and his digger company.

Water Pipit - Russ Sherriff

Water Pipit - Niall Keogh

Scandinavian Rock Pipit - Clive Watts

And although the Stonechats were there, the Dartford Warbler did not show...

Stonchat leaning into the wind - Alasdair Wilcock

The Marsh Harriers put on a great show with some close flybys and both the Ravens were having fun as usual and we saw both of them checking out a Greylag Goose with a damaged leg. There were several exploratory tail and wing pulls and one attempt at sitting on it but the goose suddenly wised up to the fact that it was not in the flock and the Ravens were feeling opportunistic and beat a rather panicked flap back to the throng.

They also put up a Short-eared Owl from the grass and gave it some half hearted grief before letting it resettle.

And so we ended up with a glorious sunset – the first of the season.

There was one more slight twist to the day as just before we closed a cyclist bravely brought in what appears to be one of our young Kestrels (but not the pale river wall one) who was sitting bedraggled on the path. It looks like the weather had got the better of her so I wrapped her up, dried her off and put her in a box. She seems bright and has nothing visibly broken... just exhausted and a little on the thin side. David Morrison very kindly collected her and took her to the South Essex Wildlife Hospital. Hopefully she will soon fatten up and recover and come back to be released back on the reserve. ...

We have called her Abigail. ..we had to really!

13-11-15