Very quiet couple of hours at the reserve this afternoon, and large areas of water are still iced over.
A man called Mel told me that the morning had been very active on the raptor front. He saw Short-eared Owl, Barn Owl, Male Hen Harrier, Peregrine and Sparrowhawk on his way round.
I saw the Barn Owl in the afternoon, along with a single Fieldfare in the bushes that the car park overlooks. Also there were:
Canada Goose - 200 or so, with a few hybrid Canada/Barnacle geese.
Barnacle Goose - 1 non-hybrid wi the Canada geese.
Brent Goose - 3000 or so around various places.
Whooper Swan - 1
Mute Swan - 5
Lapwing - 10 dotted around scrapes
Curlew - about 50
Redshank - 15
Linnet - 2 small flocks of about 7-9 birds in each
Blue Tit - 2 in bushes around car park
Took my new-ish digital camera with me and took my first two digiscoped photos of a Lapwing. Professional photographers on here have nothing to fear..... yet!
