Thursday 4th December 2008

Showers



It was a day of showers with a westerly wind, so I thought my best option lunchtime was to go to Bowling Green Marsh again so that if there was a shower, I could dive quickly into the shelter of the hide! This I duly did on a couple of occasions. Luckily there was a longish dry spell which enabled me to walk down to the viewing platform and back.There were plenty of birds on the marsh, but nothing unusual. Large numbers of Wigeon and Teal were present, with smaller numbers of Mallard, Shoveler and Shelduck, and single figure counts of Pintail and Pochard. 51 Golden Plover brightened up the area with about 150 Lapwing. There were plenty of Common Redshank dotted about the grassland feeding, and with them, over towards the oak trees, was a single Spotted Redshank, easily 'bird of the day'.
The wander down to the viewing platform and back produced several Long-tailed Tits and Goldfinches. The tide was a fair way up, so there were plenty of Avocets and Dunlin out on the mud, and several Grey Plover, Black-tailed Godwits, Curlew and a few Bar-tailed Godwits. A couple of Red-breasted Mergansers were diving for food down towards Exton station and a distant small group of Knot were feeding on the newly-exposed mud. Time, as usual at lunchtimes, sped by and a brisk walk back to the car was necessary!