WWT

Wednesday's outing was curtailed before it started. A hundred yards from home and noise from the rear of the car turned out to be a puncture.

Call out to a local firm had the problem fixed (at a cost!) but too late to warrant setting out again despite the fine weather.

And so today if was off to WWT, arriving just on opening time. A coffee to get me going was the first order of the day, also giving time for the last few spots of rain to disappear.

There were no surprises bird-wise but a final birdtrack total of 61 species seemed fair return for so little effort. Notable absentees were Water Rail (seen by others; I did not even hear one), Raven, Skylark, Meadow Pipit, Cattle Egret and Marsh Harrier. Not being able to stay late precluded the two, now regular, roosting Hen Harriers,  Barn Owl and vocal Tawny Owl/s, the latter three species recorded by others. With a bit more time 70 species would have been achievable - pretty good for 65 acres and what is in part at least a zoo.

Bird track link here:-

https://app.bto.org/birdtrack/pubcon/shared?subId=SUB50875909

Highlight of the day was meeting up with Tony and Jean for the first time in many years, probably well before COVID. They were with a friend who kindly drove them as Tony no longer does so being seventy-nine yesterday. A very obliging Kingfisher perched up on a usual tree to our delight as we chatted and was enjoyed by the restaurant customers. Several more fly-bys as the day went on and another brilliantly well lit view perched up to the left of Ramsar hide whilst sat on my own.

Farlington with SDOS

Today was a meet up with SDOS for the first time in a long while and it was nice to catch up with some 'old faces', namely SM, CH and TH plus a few people I know by name and several new people.

The weather wasn't quite as hoped for with a little unexpected drizzle and the tide was too high for optimum birding but a total of about 47-48 species were seen with a male Marsh Harrier the best, very obliging Stonechat, a nice murmuration of Dunlin and Grey Plover and a solitary Bar-tailed Godwit, my first for  a while.

One or two Rock Pipits included a Norwegian ringed bird which none of us realised was ringed until after the photo was downloaded!!

Details as follows:-

Green X9Z

Bird was ringed in 2020 as an adult, so at least 2 years old, at Maletangen, in Norway, about 1434km or 900miles as the pipit flies from Farlington Marshes. (See map).

Since 2020 the bird has been recorded most winters at Farlington, on dates between mid-October and early January and had already been reported to the Norway team in 1st and 5th November.

The reed bed looks terrible after the saltwater incursion so not really any chance of Bearded Tits. 

After leaving the group to enjoy lunch at the info centre a Raven flew over whilst packing up the car.

And needless to say the weather improved greatly as the walk came to an end!