My first visit to Pennington Flash in two weeks and and it turned out to be a good 'un! At 9:30am I was talking to Bill at what we now call Penduline reedbed, i.e. East Bay, when suddenly all of the gulls went up on the spit and an immature marsh harrier flew over heading south.
Only my third ever marsh harrier at the flash, but my second this winter. It was never going to be a great photo! Also from here we could see seven little egrets roosting in a tree at the west end.
It was a beautiful, still winters day, with 90% ice cover on the flash, and I'd actually gone in the hope of seeing bittern. Half an hour at the leaning posts in Ramsdales proved fruitless on that score, though there were a couple of water rails squealing in the reedbed. Ducks today included around 30 each of goosander and goldeneye, plus just three drake pochard.
When I reached Sorrowcow farm I looked back at Ramsdales reedbed as I always do, and there it was. A bittern at first walking on the ice and then standing on the edge of the reeds for a few minutes before walking back into cover and out of sight.
Much too far away for a photo, but this image from almost a year ago to the day gives a good impression of the calibre of todays sighting ! Oh well, at least I saw the bittern!
No comments:
Post a Comment