What was going to be a 5 minute visit to the North hide this morning turned into roughly an hours visit due to all the amazing sights that were on offer. As soon as I sat down I spotted a pair of Garganey which are probably one of my favourite ducks that occur at Radipole. They are pretty unusual which makes a sighting of them quite special plus their superb plumage make them extra stunning. They are the UK’s only summer visiting duck and it’s a species which we are hoping will benefit from all the restoration work that’s been mentioned many times of the blog over the last year.
Whilst watching the Garganey somebody shouted Kingfisher! A quick glance over to the nest hole resulted in a superb view of one of the adults going into the hole with food. This is the first time I’ve seen this myself and it proves 100% that there are baby kingfishers in the burrow.
Whilst all this was going on, one of the Marsh Harrier was hunting over the reed beds which made the hour even more special! There were quite a few others in the hide whilst I was there so plenty of people got to enjoy today’s goings on.