Pleasant sunshine which gradually gave way to cloud and the wind still had a cold edge to it.
Leading a walk this morning and spoke to Pete, Gareth and Daz in reception before we set off.
Pete had been out in the reedbed doing survey work and had heard a grasshopper warbler, he also had whinchat and lesser whitethroat.
We started off at Ousefleet hide, which like the other lagoons had been flooded due to the recent surge tides. The team had worked hard to get the reserve open again yesterday after several days of flooding.
4 avocets on the lagoon still enjoying an early morning nap. This redshank slowly walked around the edge of the water
Shelduck, shoveler, teal ,mallard, gadwall, pochard, tufted duck, little egret, grey heron, coot and marsh harrier were added to our day list.
Prior to the latest flood there were over 100 snipe on site, many are still there but are well hidden
Water voles have been seen in the ditch in front of the hides on a regular basis and this swam past us as we sat in Townend hide.
Reed warbler, sedge warbler, blackcap and chiffchaff were singing as we walked along the paths between the hides. Not always easy to see but good to know that they are back. We heard al least 4 cetti's warbler "shout" at us we walked through their chosen territory. This chiffchaff was outside reception hide.
At least 2 bitterns were booming and the marsh harriers are very active. We saw 2 food drops and a male chase away 2 crows from the area where his nest is.
A very pleasant walk with a over 40 birds on our day list. After the visitors left I returned to Marshland hide for about 30 minutes and managed to see this yellow wagtail on one of the islands. 2 pied wagtails were constantly chasing it, so it was not allowed to settle for very long, and eventually flew off.
Back on Sunday, when I hope that the weather will improve and the visitors can enjoy seeing as well as hearing the recently arrived warblers.
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