Wellies on

After pretty much a week of dank, a circuit squelching around Lunt in bright sun today was just the ticket.
Admittedly the site was a little on the quiet side, with sporadic Cetti’s splutter and just a handful of Snipe, but about 100 Lapwing in the bright sun on the Great White Pool were a sight for sore eyes, and seven Pochard were with the Tufties on the main pool.
Plenty of Teal were whistling about.
A Merlin whizzed through and local Buzzards flapped over the Alt, but the reserve’s Short Eared Owls are not putting on much of a show this winter…yet (plenty of time for that to change).
A Barn Owl was hunting the rough grassland to the south – watching one patrol a sheltered field is like watching a silent movie.
Marvellous birds.

Chatting to Phil Boardman and Tony Conway I learned the Bittern had been seen earlier in the morning, and a few Goosander had favoured the main pool, but I didn’t connect with either species today.
As the light faded and the geese began to head off the mosses and out towards the coast to roost it became harder to follow the owl in the failing light and I slithered back to the car park through the woods.

A few Redwings and Fieldfares called in the branches, and while there appeared to have been something of an influx of them into the dunes this week, numbers still feel low to me.