The hooley of the last few days seems to have cleared a lot of birds from Marshside, either that or they're lying very, very low (and who can blame them).
Still managed an hour or two this afternoon in murky grey conditions, the drop in wildfowl numbers really obvious on Marshside One now, but most of those that are left are in fine breeding nick.
14 Avocets must have wondered what they'd come back to at the top end - wait till next week's cold snap boys and girls!
Good numbers of Lapwings, Redshanks and Blackwits about, with Oycs pairing up and about 150 Golden Plover at the top of Marshside One.
One of three Little Egret fishing north of the Sandgrounders hide must have thought the "foot paddling and quick lunge" method of angling had produced the mother of all eels when it grabbed hold of this decaying rush stem.
Spat it out quickly and stalked off in a bad mood.
Outer marsh was dead, apart from a single male Stonechat, so as the light faded I had a final quick scan of the gull roost at the top of Marshside One.
Mainly held Black Headed Gulls but a fine full summer plumage adult Mediterranean Gull was a bonus. Probably one of the birds from last week, but I couldn't find any others despite 15 minutes scoping.
I was considering walking round to watch the Med from the bank in front of Stanley School (where you get a better view of the roost) when they all took off and drifted further down the marsh and out onto the beach.
Hometime.
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies...
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steve wrote...
Great photos , as you say I suspect he thought Christmas came early with a whopping eel like that "Giving itself up"
Steve
Posted by: steve | March 2, 2008 2:55 PM