A very brief visit this morning as I was heading to Slimbridge later to go moth trapping with Peter. I walked to the hides first. There were at least 15 Yellow Wagtails with the cattle in the Wedge Field showing a variation of plumages across ages and sexes.
Yellow Wagtails
You can see the eastern end of Black Water from the side window in the new De L’Orne hide and from here a Little Grebe ventured close.
Soon afterwards a Water Rail squealed and then dashed across the gap between the reed beds.
Ten Greenshank flew across the lagoon and a single bird dropped on to the mud in front of the hide.
An over mature female Common Darter landed on the track near Gravelly Crossroads, the darkest one I’ve seen. The lower part of the visible eye is not showing any signs of the bright blue colouration which is a key characteristic of Red-veined Darter.
On the new islands three Snipe and two Little Egrets were resting. Everything went up from the scrapes as one of the Ospreys drifted close to the lagoon, it hovered briefly and then dropped down to the river. It was high tide which was part of the reason why the Osprey was fishing so close to the scrape and also why several waders were also on show, 13 Redshank, 3 Black-tailed Godwit and 3 Dunlin.
A quick stop in Black Water hide produced a silent Spotted Redshank heading over to De L’Orne. A mobile Green Sandpiper moved between De L’Orne flood, the back of De L’Orne lagoon and then on to the muddy fringe in front of the newly cleared NFOC hide.
Patch Birding 