Marshy

15th May - an afternoon re-visit in the hope that on a day when many waders and terns were passing through frustratingly north of here, something new might have come in.  I found nothing new and an LRP was the only wader on site!

A nice male Yellow Wagtail perused the spit for a while and then continued on its journey.

I passed the time chatting with Graham S whilst the weather gradually cleared to leave quite a sunny and blue sky.  Raptors were obviously enjoying this sudden break and we watched several thermalling Buzzards, passing Red Kites, the odd Sparrowhawk and a single Hobby fly over.  Just before 4:30pm, I noticed an interesting raptor flapping slowly across the middle of the pit.  I jumped off the bench and scoped the bird to reveal a cream-crown Marsh Harrier - yay - a patch tick!  I was following the bird in the scope, so giving lousy directions to Graham who had failed to pick it up before it disappeared behind the willows on the base of the spit!  Luckily, it soon re-surfaced and we both watched it circling just north of the pit before it continued flapping NW.  This direction would have taken it somewhere close to my house, so it might have been viewable from there if anyone was looking!