NDC

 

This was as far as I got bird watching wise yesterday; looking through the window at birds on the feeders.

My interpretation of todays weather was wrong. I thought that the weather was going to improve during the day so I planned to go out this afternoon. Not sure what went wrong but the weather this morning was better than it was in the afternoon!

I arrived at NDC just after 12 and went straight to the far hide, It was just starting to rain as I approached the hide. I sat in my usual seat but when I opened the window I soon changed my mind. Not only was the wind blowing in but so was the rain! Change of seat so that I was facing towards Bubwith and the wind and rain were not coming into the hide.

By looking through the windows on my left I could still see the other part of the reserve. Lots of mute swans and the black swan. The whooper swan was still present but a bit further along the bund. However the farmer was tipping some soil down a bank and a high vis vest blew away. He walked onto the reserve and raked the vest out of a ditch. This movement caused several mute swans to fly away from where they were feeding, the whooper just walked  along the bund towards the hide.

Sadly it did not come as close as I would have liked, however I was concerned that it had walked away from the farmer whilst the other swans flew. I could not see any obvious signs of injured wings etc and then a few minutes later it flew about 200 yards across the reserve.

So if it can fly why is it not in Iceland?

A pair of shovelers were on the water in front of the hide, the female was feeding, the male was just keeping her company.

A wagtail flew onto a patch of exposed mud, it was very pale, was it a white wagtail?

A reed bunting perched on a post near the hide.

After a couple of hours I walked to the Geoff Smith hide. On the scrape in front of the hide the mute swans were still on their nest on one of the islands.

The coots had built their nest in between some reed stalks and were still adding to it.

There were a pair of shoveler on the scrape. I cannot say if they were the same pair that I had seen from the other hide. However another male appeared and the two males started to fight.

There were 3 black tailed godwits feeding in the same area as the swans, it was possible to see their heads as they stopped feeding. Not many curlews on site, just one pair the other side of the scrape. Every now and again one bird would glide by, sometimes calling.

I was watching a pied wagtail when I thought I saw a flash of yellow. Before I could scan the scrape  to see what it was, there was a very heavy shower of rain, After the rain stopped and it was possible to look around the scrape I saw a pair of yellow wagtails. They were "mobile" to use a phrase I often read when reports of birds are made. I managed this shot before they flew away.

I could hear a willow warbler singing and could see a bird on one of the lower branches of  a tree close to the hide. The bird did not show itself like the one on my last visit.

It was now 5pm and the rain had returned, so I left for home.