Paul's Blog - All comments and views are my own,

Nip in the air..... There was a bit of a nip in the air this morning, although if I had woken earlier as planned it would have been even nippier! Anyway a late start saw me on the reserve at 08:45, it was calm and there were quite a few birds flitting across the track where puddles still lay from the last rain. I set two 40ft nets, about 100ft apart, and whilst I was not flooded with birds catching a small flock of Goldfinches did make for a busy start. As the morning wore on I decided to see if the Meadow pipits would react to the tape lure, they did and whilst it wasn't a classic Meadow Pipit set up I caught four birds before packing up and getting on with some work. Meadow Pipits are every predators favourite food, and we have lots on the reserve, they bred well and now the winter visitors are arriving, I'll be targeting them over the next weeks. Meadow Pipit, notice the tick just behind the eye! Meadow Pipit

High tide delights...winter on the way? This morning was one of the highest spring tides at 9.1m, and it was at a sensible time around 08:30, so a lie in!. The high tide almost up to the fore dunes, in the distance , (over the white water) there were Gannets, Arctic Skua, GBB Gulls, herring Gulls, and Black-headed Gulls feeding I was on site by 07:45hrs and spent a pleasant 2 hours birding, without seeing a soul. middle marsh, just after the top of the tide I did manage 42 species of birds, with the highlights being, Whinchat, Arctic Skua, Wigeon, Teal, and the first returning Brent Geese, although they don't usually use  the marsh they do fly by, today they were resting and preening on the top of the marsh With the marsh flooding I went to the beach at the eastern end of the reserve, but not quite to the boundary so a lot of roosting waders and gulls etc were out of sight, until they got moved by the incoming tide. A flock of around 130 Sandwich Te

In deepest Swindon town... Well on the fringes at least... I was back with the North Wilts Ringing Group for my annual meeting with my mentor, old Prior.. it was good to see he's still the same as ever! He had prepared for this morning session last night. and while doing so caught a JACK SNIPE, the site is known for these diminutive wintering waders, and the 17th September was the earliest capture date. Jack Snipe, (photograph taken at Oxwich NNR 2015) With almost the full, Matt Prior, team out just Simon was missing it was great to see how much the lads Biff and Noah have continued to improve, as always the craic was up to its usual standards. With Anna and Paul W also out as well as Noah's mum who was scribing the team was set for what turned out to be a classic autumn ringing session. As usual Matt had some billy bonus net set and typically there were some interesting non-passerines to process. Common Snipe, a bird of the year (3) based on median cov