It was grey and claggy on Friday 7th March, a bit of a surprise after all the lovely sunshine we've been enjoying recently, and despite rain being forecasted for later in the day we headed out anyway for a short morning walk around Saltram. It was fairly quiet around the Park, presumably because of the weather forecast and the grey skies, but the rain never did arrive although the air felt mild and moist.
It was coming up to a neap high tide so Blaxton Meadow wasn't too flooded and there was plenty of mud on show. The usual Gulls, Ducks and Waders were roosting out on the Meadow and there was also a spread out flock of around 150 constantly moving Dunlin busily feeding away on the exposed mud amongst the Redshanks. I only had my travel binoculars with me and no telescope but I carefully scanned through them as best I could and eventually found the wintering Curlew Sandpiper hidden in plain sight amongst them. It showed very well from the bird hide before the flock was spooked into the air and I lost sight of it.
At the duck pond the pair of Red-crested Pochard were also easily found, both were fast asleep before waking up and taking to the water to feed on grain being thrown out to the ducks by a visiting family.
The male kept himself close to the female but she didn't appear to be very enamoured by his attentions, she often moved away and seemed to prefer the company of a male Mallard instead.
Also of note on our short walk were 3 Mute Swans, 2 male Wigeon, 8 adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 3 Greenshank, a Kingfisher and 5 Stock Doves. Sadly there was no sign of the female Wood Duck at the duck pond on this visit although it had been reported there the previous day.
No comments:
Post a Comment