Bank Island

 After reading several reports about Bank Island I decided to visit this afternoon. It was just after 1330 as I parked  in the last space in the car park. Was a rare bird present? I checked my phone and nothing had been reported. As I walked down the path to Cheesecake Hide I could see a group of people in front of the Bank Island hide, so that explained the full car park.

As I walked towards the hide I could see some grey shapes in the grass, when I got into the hide and looked through my bins I could see that they were grey herons.

Every few minutes one of them would fly and chase another heron. This was repeated time after time until what I believed to be a young heron flew off.

There were lots of lapwings standing at the waters edge, I counted 71. Carrion crows were on the grass looking for food. I could hear buzzards but was unable to see them. Then I saw a shadow cross the grass and looking upwards I saw 2 buzzards. They slowly circled over the field.

Some of the carrion crows started to chase the buzzards

they all landed in the same tree!

After a while the lapwings took to the air and I looked to see what might have caused this and saw a marsh harrier. 

It was hunting opposite the hide but fairly low down and it was difficult to pick it up due to the trees behind it. I lost sight of it and the lapwings settled down. I then noticed in the distance two hares.

The herons moved from the grass into the water and as I looked at them through my telescope I noticed that the marsh harrier was standing at the waters edge.

I then noticed that there were 2 marsh harriers. Several snipe flew in and landed in the grass near the water. I saw a buzzard sat in a tree.

The light was starting to fade, time to go home.