Boxing Day birding

It's now a glorious sunny day on the reserve which started off with a chilly night and a light frost

It's now a glorious sunny day on the reserve which started off with a chilly night and a light frost this morning.

Estuary Tower
High tide this morning saw a very small roost of eight Curlew, but joining them were a few Dunlin, 13 Grey Plover, 58 Great Black-backed Gull, four Grey Heron and two Cormorant, along with a few Wigeon and Shelduck along the riverbank. Closer to the hide, the Tack Piece is again filled with birds including hundreds of Wigeon, Teal and Lapwing, plus several Pintail, flocks of Dunlin. three Curlew, 36 Black-tailed Godwit, 12 Redshank, three Cranes, ten Snipe and 16 White-fronted Geese. The rest of the White-fronted Geese are in the Stall House field to north of the Tack Piece, with at least 59 counted through gaps in hedge.

Out on the Long Ground Pool were a good number of duck. A Great Egret roosted here with a Little Egret, with the Great Egret remaining in the roost until at least 10am.

Zeiss Hide
The Top and Bottom New Piece fields are littered with hundreds of Lapwing, Dunlin and Teal this morning. Also counted were 23 Pintail, 31 Snipe and a few Wigeon.

Decoy Hide
A Great Egret and two Little Egret roosted here overnight and were seen at first light (photo)

South Lake
The drake first-winter Scaup was on the deep lake this morning with 12 Tufted Duck and 20 Pochard. Later the Scaup moved to the Rushy. A small flock of seven Avocet and a larger flock of 238 Black-tailed Godwit were on the wader scrape with a single Ruff and several hundred Lapwing. At least 15 Shoveler were amongst the Teal.

Rushy Hide
At least 102 Bewick's Swans on site this morning, mainly here on the Rushy first thing before moving out into the fields to feed for the day.

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