When we do visit this nature reserve, we always have the kids with us, aged 3 & 4mo at this time. And as anyone who has kids know, looking for wild birds and having kids this young along don't mix, so we tend to take shifts taking a walk without the kids. Mark took the morning shifts and I got the evening shifts.
The Mudflats & Lagoon
My morning walk took me around approximately half the harbour (inc. down onto the mudflats), the dam wall and lagoon at the top of the harbour. It was a gorgeous morning with warm sunshine and only a gentle breeze which quickly took the edge off the cold morning air. The tide was relatively far out with lots of waders showing down on the flats, so that's where I headed first.
Down on the flats there was a good variety of gulls, ducks and waders including:
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Heading back up off the flats a sizable flock of Linnets circling the pastures and 2 Kestrel were a very pleasant sighting.
The Lagoon at the top of the harbour was as picturesque as ever with many of the ducks and waders already mentioned plus both Great Crested and Little Grebe and all the usual favourites (Mute Swans, Mallards, Coot, Moorhen, etc). A large number of Reed Buntings were seen darting in and out of the reeds and nearby a few Cetti's Warblers could also be heard. A Buzzard overhead gave me a few nice snaps and another much paler Buzzard was also observed in the fields beyond the Lagoon.
The highlight of the morning however was the first of several sightings over our few days away of a Snipe on the far edge of the Lagoon.
Here's a selection on photos from the morning...
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| Linnets | Pintails in Flight |
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| Turnstone | Grey Plover |
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| Dunlin | Buzzard |
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| Black-tailed Godwit | Magpie |
Then we attempted to head over to Church Norton to view some of the slavonian grebes that had been reported there. But after a disasterous attempt with bringing both the kids, we headed back. Stopping along the way back near a marshy area, I had the chance to view my very first avocets. It was only a pair of them, but it was fantastic to see, and although I improved on the photos we had, there's still plenty of room for improvement.
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| Avocet | Avocets |
After this bit of success, we headed back to the caravan, where I left Mark and the kids and headed off on my own little walk. The light was mostly fading, but I still made the most of my time. I walked over to see if the red-breasted merganser was still there, and I was in luck, he was still there and closer than ever. He was remarkably unafraid of me, so I had fun getting some great close-ups of him. I tried to photograph the female later, but she was as shy as anything I'd seen, and simply would not come within good range of my lens. So I had to settle for a record shot of her, as I never was able to get a good shot of her during our visit.
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| Red-breasted Merganser Male | Red-breasted Merganser Female |
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