Grey plover at Blacktoft

 Sunday October 3rd an my usual Sunday day at Blacktoft. It was a pleasant sunny morning as I had a quick look around the reserve before opening the gates for visitors. Marshland was the first lagoon I visited.

The waders were still resting,

by mid morning the waders were more active and a grey plover was easy to see. Not a rare bird, but a welcome visitor to the reserve. This is the first grey plover that I have seen at Blacktoft and takes my reserve total to 143.

Very little bird life on Xerox lagoon. "Larry" the white tailed lapwing was the only bird I could see from 1st hide.

he was close to the edge of the lagoon so visitors had to use the upstairs viewing area to be able to see him.

Townend lagoon had no birds so it was on to Singleton. There were lots of birds to be seen here.20+ little egrets, mute swan family, dunlin, snipe, ruff and black-tailed godwits. The duck numbers are increasing and the males are starting to look smarter after their recent moult. Marsh harrier numbers are also increasing as more birds use the reed bed to roost. The harriers are more active on the reserve which disturbs the other birds.

these two harriers were over the lagoon at Singleton and put all the birds to flight including the greylag geese.

The visitor centre closes at 5pm so I spent the hour before the reserve closes in Marshland hide. At the hide faces west the light can be a problem at this time of day as the birds are between me and the sun. I could not see the grey plover, the ruff dunlin and redshanks were busily feeding.

just before I left this little egret flew into the lagoon and starting looking for fish to the right of the hide.

Busy at the footnall club for the next couple of weeks so no Sundays at Blacktoft.