The Fog

I was planning a trip to the east coast this morning, however it was too foggy to bother wasting the petrol. I decided instead to drive to Strumpshaw, a 3 minute drive from home, very handy indeed!
I arrived to the expected view of fog and not a lot else but decided to sit in the Fen hide and wait to see what happens.
For a day that didnt look too promising I got a few quality species. Bearded tits were evident pinging in the reedbed as well as 7 Marsh Harriers still roosting in one of the cut strips from Fen Hide, it was good to see them interacting with each other while on the ground.

After a kingfisher also put on a short performance on one of the perches, the first good sighting of the day occurred when I noticed ripples in the water, an Otter popped its head up and to my surprise it was being followed by 2 much smaller heads! Brilliant stuff, finally I was watching the bitch and cubs that so many visitors have been reporting lately.

Equally as impressive was the fact that a Bittern decided to finally show well for me in the cut plots, I have seen a lot of Bitterns recently however they have mainly been short flight views. The bird flew in and was feeding for about 20 mins in the open giving really good scope views, photography was a joke due to the mist but I gave it a go anyway, its behind the crow in the photo...and wont win any competitions!

I left the hide quite satisfied and continued round the fen, highlights were decent numbers of winter thrushes, a few Brambling and Redpoll flying over as well as more bearded tits. I checked out one of the reed plots I cut last week and manged to flush 2 Jack snipe, 16 Snipe and 2 Water pipits, a positive bit of habitat creation!

For some reason today had a few hints of spring about it, despite being cold and foggy I have heard Great Tit, Song Thrush, Blackbird and Wren singing. I also noticed a female Marsh Harrier flying around with a reed in its talons, the Black Swans have decided its a fine time to raise their young, I suppose it would be if they were still in Oz.

With the news of an Arctic Redpoll on the North coast I think I'll check out the local redpoll flock and hope for a mealy or two, I wouldn't mind an Arctic but I'll remain realistic for now!