It was still very flooded out on the South Brooks as we headed past the visitor centre and onto the reserve. Straight away we could see there were a lot of ducks out on the water.
Making our way down the ZigZags path towards the hides we encountered a nice selection of small birds including a Song Thrush, Dunnock and a little group of Bullfinches which briefly showed well, the male looking particularly dapper.
A Kestrel was perched in a tree up ahead as we got to the T-Junction at the bottom of the path, and as we watched she dropped from her perch onto something in the field below.
A bit further along the path towards Nettley’s hide and the Hanger we heard a Blackbird alarm calling but were unable to find out the cause of this, though I suspected a well-hidden Tawny Owl. We did see a Fallow Deer run down into the trees here though, not long after Sylva had spotted some deer tracks on the path.
From the viewpoint on the bend down towards Nettley’s hide we got our first good scan of the North Brooks, where we saw lots of ducks including Wigeon, Teal and Pintail, all looking very smart in the sunshine. A flock of around two hundred Black-tailed Godwits was whirling around in the air, clearly upset by something though we couldn’t see the cause of this.
In this area we also heard a Coal Tit singing and a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming. Just as we were preparing to move on to the next viewpoint a Great White Egret dropped in right over on the far side, briefly perching on a fence. By the time we got to the Hanger viewpoint, it had gone. Here we were told by another group of birders that a White-tailed Eagle was showing well in a tree on the South Brooks, so we hurried around there, hoping to see it. It didn’t take long once we got into Winpenny hide to find the eagle, still in the trees near the river. It got a bit of hassle from a Carrion Crow which caused it to fly out towards the South Brooks, showing off its gleaming white tail before returning to its tree.
A Marsh Harrier was also quartering around the South Brooks and a Ruff briefly appeared among the Lapwings in the grass but we soon lost sight of it again. Heading down to West Mead hide, we enjoyed good views of more ducks, including Shoveler and Wigeon, and ten Shelduck which were on the pool right in front of the hide. From the hide we also spotted a couple of Snipe, well camouflaged on the muddy island right in front of us.
Heading back up to the visitor centre we heard the rattling call of redpoll and saw a few flying overhead, with one Lesser Redpoll later perching very nicely on top of a tree so we could see the ‘raspberry splat’ red patch on its forehead.
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