Quite a crowd of us this morning!  Alan (+ Stella), Angela, Carole, Helen, Maggie (+ Otto), Scott & Tessa met Ezio and myself at the earlier time of 8 o’clock. I was hoping to get all the way round the patch today.

Great range of wildfowl on the brooks, including still quite a few Shoveler, a pair of Pintail which I hadn’t seen on a recce yesterday, and of course, Teal & Wigeon.  There were 2 Great White Egrets standing near a Heron and a handful of Little Egrets.  In the scope I picked out a couple of waders on the far side of the fields, with yellow/orange legs. By the process of elimination of other species, reckon they were 2 Ruff, a relatively unusual sight here, and only seen on passage.

We spent rather a lot of time at the 3 vantage points in the fields, the last of which produced singing Cetti’s Warbler and a smart male Reed Bunting which Carole found. Those with walking boots climbed the gate while the wellie brigade went through the appalling mud at the kissing gate. We then stopped at the metal bridge, where Angela spotted 2 Red Kites sitting on posts. One flew, but the other stayed.  Herons were busy on their nests, and two Cormorants were in the nearby oak tree.  Another unusual sighting was David Plummer and Shadow who emerged from the millstream path as we were watching the herons.  Further down we added a pair of Goldcrests which were flitting about near Stretham Manor.

We had already been almost 3 hours by the time we arrived at Stretham Bridge and I needed to get back for a Link drive, so while Alan, Maggie & Carole continued up the river the rest of us retraced our steps, though keeping to the railway line. On our way back we heard a Blackcap singing and all managed to get a good view of it in the nearby tree.

A total of 48 species (or 49 if you count the Peacock we heard!).

Val