Lovely blue skies turned to cloud upon arriving at Marshside today. A brisk wind but not too cold so walking was pleasant. The grassland in many areas was partially flooded and played host to many birds including wigeon, teal, mallard, Pintail and shelduck. In the distance I could hear the plaintive call of the curlew and in the skies swirling and diving were mixed flocks of lapwing, black tailed godwit and golden plover.

The birds were very restless today. Arriving at the hide and looking out over the marshes it wasn’t difficult to work out why. Fleeing wigeon very close by alerted us to their hunter, a sparrow hawk, female, swift and silent, hugging the ground and disappearing as quickly as she appeared, over towards the sea. There were many thousands of Wigeon out on the marshes and giving some excellent close up views. Whilst sat in the hide we also noticed a female teal sat in the undergrowth on one side. Overlooked by the hawk she looked unwell and sure enough as soon as she tried to move she fell right over onto her side. As she never actually moved forward it was difficult to decipher whether she had a bad leg or whether she maybe had some kind of brain problem. No doubt nature would decide her fate. Today the tide was high by 1pm so we walked along the seafront looking for the reported marsh harrier. Here though it was very quiet and apart from the odd small flock of pink footed geese and an occasional skylark we saw nothing.

Quickly tiring of a lack of birds and in search of food we left Marshside and made our way to Mere sands wood to have another try at the Long tailed tits on the feeders. This time the light was no where near as good but there were pockets of good light when the sun came out. Sadly the suet feeder upon which the long tailed tits had been feeding a few days before, was empty, but the bird table was well topped up and was attracting a good variety of birds.

Robins were numerous and highly active today. Lots of singing and ticking could be heard as they chased, fought and displayed vigorously to one another over territory rights.. They were also gracious enough to display right in front of us providing some wonderful photographic opportunities. Below the feeders a cautious water rail also came creeping through the side of the reeds though sadly never really gave any clear views.All in all a good day that yielded both good birds and some good photographic opportunities. I went home deeply satisfied.