Undoubted highlight of the week was on the evening of Wednesday the 25th - a little stint on South Marsh West which had later moved to Watton NR. No sign the next morning - but the first since the D res was drained in 2007. Up to four snipe and a greenshank on the South Marsh East amongst the new scrapes which now have some water in:
Two dunlin yesterday on South Marsh West and a green sandpiper this evening. A red crested pochard dropped in on the 21st on D res - as always origins debatable. That said the easterly winds of late and particularly forecast suggest much excitement in coming days - any chance of an inland yellow browed warbler?
In the meantime a smattering of the regulars - mash harriers, hobbys, marsh tit and med gulls; not to mention the stalwart kingfishers. Many thanks to Oliver Wright for these cracking pictures from last weekend:
There have still been reports of otter around - though not as showy as last week. That said many of you will have seen the pumps currently transferring water into the river Hull creating a fountain of spray on the bank side. Animals playing is always something open to debate; but two engineers from the Water Works checking the pumps a couple of days ago found both otters frolicking in the spray from the pipes! One thing which again we didn't want to find swimming is foxes - this time taken by Bruce Pillinger:
We've already got the electric fencing for the terns next year...
Martin Hodges got an excellent count last Saturday of 38 pintail on Watton NR. Tony McLean who is often to be found on the reserve has just given a heart felt posting on his site which is well worth a
read - again all we can hope is that the Reserve finds a conscientious new owner.
Still a few migrant hawkers about:
But most eyes will be on migrant birdlife in coming days...
