Nick mentioned some of the scarcities from yesterdays birding bonanza such as the Smew, 8 Goosander (including a drake), 5 Woodlark and 2 Bittern. But he didn't mention some of the real highlights. Best of all was the shear numbers of birds passing overhead. Remarkably the highest count of the day was over 4000 Skylark! Will and myself spent most of the day watching the skies counting birds. Lapwing numbers were also into the thousands and Golden Plover totalled several dozen.
However, this mornings birding efforts didn't produce anything near yesterdays totals. Mainly due to the change in weather, we had clear skies and no breeze compared to yesterdays bitter wind and overcast snowy skies. I did get a chance to take some photos this morning of some of the sites around the reserve.
The bitterns been quite active this morning and I got this photo whilst on the way to the office to write this blog post!
Gadwall have been feeding with the Mallards under the bridge at the visitor centre
And this was the seen from the concrete bridge at first light. Most of the ducks are gathered on very small patches of open water. The buddleia lake was mostly frozen causing hundreds of duck to flock together. The drake Goosander was also still on the reserve this morning.
Good shot of the Bittern flying over, excellent detail of the head and the pale wing coverts, and the Gadwall on Ice, with it's vermiculated breast feathers resplendent in the morning sunlight, make for a nice set of photo's, not bad for a walk back to the office!
Seize the day!