Sunday afternoon at Blacktoft

 

A later start than planned, so I went to Blacktoft. Rain showers on the way, so I was pleased to arrive in the dry. Good to see that there is now a bird table and a bird feeder a bit closer than my last visit. Wood pigeons on the bird table and plenty of blue tits and tree sparrows at the feeder. Carrion crow, starling, redwing, blackbird and fieldfare in the flower meadow.

I had a chat with Ian and Daz in the visitor centre, where Daz showed me that he had put up a form on which we could record the dates that the summer visitors arrive, before walking to Marshland. Carl, Gerald and John joined me in Marshland and it was good to have a chat as we had not seen each other since last year.

About a dozen snipe on the lagoon, mostly on the left hand side with tufted ducks

 lots of wigeon, gadwall, mallard and a few lapwings. When the guys moved to Reedling hide, where they planned to have lunch, I went to the visitor centre and covered for Ian while he went to Reedling to have a chat. When Ian came back I walked down to Townend hide. 4 whooper swans

at the far end of the lagoon along with 2 greylags, 2 mute swans and about a dozen gadwall. I then went to Singleton where there were about 40 wigeon grazing on the grass in front of the hide.

I decided to go to Ousefleet to try to find the goldcrest that Carl had seen earlier. On the way I had a short chat with Suzanne who was in Townend hide, where she had seen the kingfisher fly along the ditch. Carl, John and Gerald were just leaving Reedling hide as I past so I said goodbye and walked down to Ousefleet.

 

Still plenty of water in front of the hide, and if I have read the tide tables correctly we might have some very high tides later this month. Lots of black-tailed godwits

these 3 were the nearest birds. Lots of dunlin

these were more difficult to photograph as they were feeding at the edge of the vegetation. A male marsh harrier flew over

this caused the birds to take to the air and three snipe landed close to the hide.

No sign of a goldcrest, I did see robin and wren. Just as I was about to leave Ousefleet, Mike turned up and I passed Lindsey on the reserve. It was good to catch up with people.