More patch delights........

Oystercatcher and Black Tailed Godwit

 Yet another rewarding trip to the patch! A scan out along the shingle spit on the Broad and immediately was drawn to 3 bright orange beaks...yep you've guessed it, there were 3x Oystercatchers enjoying the gorgeous sunshine.While enjoying these charismatic birds i noticed a sleeping Wader. A rather smart Black Tailed Godwit.I watched it wake and then make its way along the shingle .A rather graceful Wader and a first for me on the patch. After a while i turned my attention to water and after a Tufted count of 75 i spotted a male Goldeneye.Again a smart looking bird and with the sun looking rather striking.

Black Tailed Godwit

Goldeneye

A further hunt for any thing else of interest resulted in:

2x Pochard ,2x Gadwall , 3x Common Snipe , before  everything took to the air and as it did i counted 11x Lapwings & then a flock of 12x Dunlin.They dropped down at the Marshes so i made my way there.Although when i got there the marsh was bare other then a few Stock Doves but i did meet a fellow birder of name Kaine.We got gassin as you do and he too had seen the Dunlin flock take off and as we spoke a single Dunlin flew by and dropped onto the broad.I left to the sound of a singing Cettis (in fact a total of 3 today)Once again it shows that regular visits to a patch although sometimes can be rather empty with bird life, other times can be fantastic and of late its been more of the latter- Long may it continue!

Taking to the air: Stock Doves, Lapwings and gulls. Oystercatchers take there chances

Happy Birding,
  Shaky

It's started!

A quick look around the patch yesterday after work was worth the effort with a calling Chiffchaff . I had to wait patiently for it to show along the trees along the river but it was worth the wait. Missed these little energetic birds-hope this is the start of many more returning to the patch this month. I've just heard that fellow birder Adam has been down today and had Green sands and Avocet so hopefully I'll have more patch year ticks to watch before the weeks out!
Also of note was 4x singing Cettis ,3x male Reed Buntings , a Greater Spotted Woodpecker and 60+ Greylags on the new cut.
The duck numbers have noticeably dropped this week as the large number of Teal is now a small flock of just 7. And only 2 x Gadwall were seen , along with a single Great Crested Grebe,although as I left around 30x Tufteds dropped in from whitlingham to make the broad look a bit busier.
Here's looking forward to the next visit!
Happy birding ,
Shaky