GREYLAKE - PENDULINE TIT TWITCH
WEATHER: dull and overcast all morning with very light rain and moderate winds.
this was the view from my living room yesterday morning, a Mackerel Sky and a frozen meadow, beautiful
I collected my Guru friend from his home in Yeovil and we drove across to Greylake Reserve where yesterday, a Penduline Tit had been seen and photographed.
I expected a large turn out of birders, which would have packed out the two small hides, but when we arrived there were four cars in the car park and dirty, big Campervan. We had just seen 50+ Cattle Egrets in field about two miles back along the road.
In the hide were four or five birders and a couple of 'toggers', as usual the Guru seemed to know everyone in there and we soon gleaned negative information about the Penduline. It had only been heard first thing this morning but no-one had seen it so far today.
its always nice to see a bunch of Lapwings they are beautiful birds
We scanned the abundant Reedmace (Bulrush) seed heads, there were thousands of them, the wind didn't help matters much. I spent a solid hour just scoping the reeds and spent a solid hour talking to his friends (non-stop).
The Penduline decided not to turn up whilst we were there but we enjoyed plenty of other species. Despite there being quite low number of birds in general we did see: Teal, Wigeon, Gadwall, Shoveler, Mallard, several Marsh Harrier, Peregrine Falcon, Common Buzzard, Raven, Great White Egret, Common Snipe, Lapwing and Water Rail.
one of two Water Rails showing well, seen from outside of the hide
Passerine sightings included: Chiffchaff, Reed Bunting, Stonechat, Goldfinch, Wren, Robin, Starling, Fieldfare, Redwing and Cetti's Warbler. Just outside of the hide there were two Water Rails showing really well, so I snapped a few pics with my phone.
16 of the 50+ Cattle Egrets seen this morning
We could not wait around all day for the bird to appear, nor did we have time to drive to Ham Wall to look for the Yellow-browed Warbler that apparently was showing well along the main track. I had to be home to care for the two Dachshunds that we are 'dog sitting' for Dawn's daughter. So, we left at 12 noon. As we walked back to the car Guy spotted a Stoat running across the path and as we looked for it a Water Rail flew over in the same direction.
We did stop to look at the Cattle Egrets on the way home and I tried to get picture for this blog.