The morning dog walk was interesting with Barn Owl, and an impressive mixed finch flock made up largely of Linnet and Greenfinch with a decent sprinkling of Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Siskin and Lesser Redpoll thrown in. The hedges were full of Fieldfare and Blackbird with a couple of Redwing and Song Thrush too and the pair of Mistle Thrush that have taken residence of a hawthorn bush were still present.
During the afternoon I met up with Natalie for some birding in the LDV, check out her blog: Natural(ist) Blonde. We started off at Aughton Ings where there was a good number of Lapwing with at least 30 Ruff, 4 Redshank, 1 Grey Plover, 1 Dunlin and easily excess of 50 Snipe including a nice flock of 30 feeding out in the open. There was also a large number of Teal and Wigeon. The large number of waterfowl was a tempting treat for the local Peregrine and Marsh Harrier, both of which put in appearances. A rush of thrushes bursting out of the scrub was due to the attentions of a Sparrowhawk making a dash for dinner.
Next stop was over to North Duffield to see if 1) we could fit into the hide and 2) if the Bittern was still present. After a bit of manoeuvring seats were made available and after a short wait the Bittern appeared fairly close to the hide along the right of the pool. It was interesting to watch the bird peering into the undergrowth, after a quick stab it pulled out a fairly sizeable frog, which it continued to destroy! Happy with its meal it then headed to the back of the pool, eventually disappearing out of view for the rest of the evening. I got a couple of pictures (below) but unfortunately the light wasn't the best by the time it came out!
A couple of Barn Owl were flying about at the back of the reserve and late on one appeared closer to the hide. A couple of Marsh Harrier were noted but again no Short-eared Owl, presumably the bird from earlier has cleared off. There was a decent herd of Whooper Swans at the back of the pools (about 65) and plenty of Geese, Mute Swan and assortment of wildfowl (not enough room in the hide to get the scope out to look at/count properly), though there did appear to be more Pintail present.
Bittern © Andy Walker 2012
Bittern © Andy Walker 2012
Bittern © Andy Walker 2012
Bittern © Andy Walker 2012
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