Filey and Blacktoft

 2 different days, weather wise

Tuesday, November 1st, was a bright sunny day with a strong wind. I started out with a walk along Carr Naze. Mistle thrush, siskin, blackbird all blown along by the strong wind. Out at sea a few gannets were circling as they looked for fish. On the grass in the centre of the Country Park were oystercatchers

and the usual mixture of gulls

Filey Dams was a bit like everywhere at the moment quiet on the bird front.

This redshank walked around the edge of the water feeding

this male gadwall was having a preen

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Today Saturday the 5th was a different day weather wise. Rain all day. So I decided to go to Blacktoft so that I could shelter in the hides. I had a chat to Stu while he was checking the livestock. From Ousefleet hide I could see 24 lapwings on one of the islands and a pair of stonechats perched on some vegetation. 2 little grebes and 2 pairs of gadwall were trying to keep out of the way of some mute swans. I think that there were a family of 3 young and 2 adult swans and another adult swan.The male swan kept chasing the other adult swan.

Marshalnd lagoon water level has gone down since my last visit, and there is now some mud showing at the edge of the water.

Black tailed godwits, snipe, redshank, dunlin and teal until 3 marsh harriers came a hunting.

I then went to reception and had a chat with John, who was on duty. He is going to Mull next year, so we spoke about his trip. I then went to 1st hide and ate my lunch.

A distant stonechat and a grey heron were the only birds I saw.

this little grebe had Townend lagoon to itself.

Singleton lagoon had a few more birds. 2 redshank were feeding at the edge of the water and a greenshank flew past twice but did not stop. Fieldfares, chattered as they flew over, and lots of canada, greylag and pink feet made a racket as they were feeding in the field behind the hide.

lots of lapwing, golden plover and dunlin took to the air as a ship passed the apex of the reserve.

a couple of marsh harriers were flying close to each other, then 3, 4 and then 6. I made a note of the time that I saw 6 harriers in the sky together it was 13:46. It was another hour before I saw 6 in the sky again and then there were 6 on a frequent basis and then the harriers stopped flying and went to roost. 

All was quiet for nearly an hour, just an odd harrier flying in to roost. The suddenly just after 16:30 several took to the air at the same time. 6 then 7,then 10 and finally 15 marsh harriers in the air quite close to each other. A nice end to a rainy day.