A Windy morning birding
I was'nt sure whether to go down the marsh this morning. It was quite windy and I knew it would be difficult to get any decent bird photo's.On the other hand ,I thought the wind might have brought in some new arrivals on migration.So off I plodded ,waving to the shepherd as I passed him ,down the track leading to the marsh.
The first birds to come into sight were 4 Little ringed plover feeding with a Wood sandpiper and 6 Little stint,after shielding myself from the wind, I managed a few half ~ decents shots.
Little ringed plover
Just then, some Little egret flew over and settled further along in the shallows.As I moved along the track I could see some movement on the far bank, a quite -large bird grubbing around in the mud.When I got the scope focused I could see it was what I first thought to be a Curlew but having since looked at the picture on my PC found it to be a Whimbrel .Which is brilliant news, and another life -bird for me.
Whimbrel
I then checked out the bottom -section of the marsh, but the wind was quite strong by now ,so I returned to the bridge at the other end of the marsh and waited to see if anything else was going to appear. After about ten minutes some Yellow wagtails arrived.
Yellow wagtail
The early arrivals back on migration settling down to a lunch of insects quite close to the car .They were then joined by some Meadow pipits and some Crested larks.
Meadow pipit
Crested lark
By this time it was getting really windy so I decided to "call it a day" and return home for a nice hot cup of tea.
All in all considering the conditions, it was a really good morning with some really good birds.Lets hope that wind dies down for the morning.
