Friday 15th January 2016

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Catch up


The weather has, at last, settled down, with a frost on the reserve this morning ice on the puddles and a high tide there were plenty of birds about.

The best of the birds were the usual suspects being, Teal, Mallard, Wigeon, Redshank, Curlew and Snipe. Seven Shelduck were an addition to the list. Raptors were represented by Buzzard, Red Kite and Merlin.

Despite a high tide to day it was only 8.4m which isn't high enough for the marsh to flood so the actual numbers seen were low, in fact much lower than when the birds were disturbed by walkers when they leave the confines of the main inlet and creeks.

The cattle have had to be moved to field 1, after vandalism to the barbed wire fence in field 2, resulting in at least of the bullocks going on walkabout.

I have been working on the "hut", the viewing shelter at the end of the main track overlooking the saltmarsh, I really wish more birders/naturalists would visit the reserve, maybe they do but I never see them.





With snow on the hills in the distance it actually feels like winter at last.......



Redwing, a touch of winter?



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