Late afternoon birding

 I received a message to say that there were Bewick swans in a field near Blacktoft, so about 1pm I left home. As I reached the reserve I could see 3 people standing at the bend in the road, looking through telescopes. I recognised 2 of the people, Carl and Ian. I quickly parked my car and got my telescope and walked to join them. The swans were a couple of fields away, but it was possible to see that they were smaller than the mute swans they were with. The wind was blowing very strongly and one chaps telescope and tripod blew over, so we decided to retreat to the reserve.

This was the view from Xerox hide. 2 mute swans, and 3 teal plus a group of snipe, sheltering in some vegetation.

 I then walked to Marshland hide were there were only 2 mallard and 3 snipe. According to a chap in the hide, previous occupants had allowed the door to slam in the wind and most of the birds flew off.

I then joined Carl and Ian in Townend hide. Carl had just found the water pipit.

It was difficult to find the water pipit as it blended in with the vegetation well. A marsh harrier was hunting close by, had it seen the pipit?

I then received a message telling me that the dusky warbler had been seen again at Wheldrake, so I left Blacktoft and drove to Wheldrake. It was 1530 by now and the light was fading. I had mis read the message, as the bird had been seen near a footbridge, not the river bridge. However I was there so I walked on to the reserve. Needless to say I did not hear or see the warbler, or any smew, either of which would have been my 200th bird of the year.

This was the view as I left Swantail hide. It was nearly dark by the time that I reached the Tower hide.

The pictures are not very good due to the light, but the white in the picture are gulls. The gull roost was very large and I wondered how many different gulls were there, any white winged ones?

2 days left to find my 200th bird of the year, will I do it?