Sunday February 15

A lead grey sky and no wind on a rather chilly morning. Today I achieved a Morton Bagot ambition, but there was no sign that today would contain anything special as Dave and I trudged round for an hour without seeing very much.

The pool did at least produce a year tick in the form of two drake Tufted Ducks, but the flashes contained only 13 Teal, a Green Sandpiper, six Lapwings, 16 Canada Geese, and four Greylag Geese.

I suggested we try walking through the marsh beside the pool to see if we could flush any Jack Snipe. The answer was an emphatic yes. We kicked up 19 Common Snipe, and 10 Jack Snipe before the moment arrived. The 11th Jack Snipe was not flushed. At last I spotted one on the deck.

Jack Snipe

Not easy to see is it? Just how hard they can be to spot is illustrated by the next photo, with handy caption.

It's about 7 o'clock from the J of Jack Snipe

 After that success the remainder of the trip was pretty pedestrian. The Jack Snipe count was my record count here by the way.

One or two little birds caught my eye.

Treecreeper

Coal Tit

and one big bird too.

Cormorant

In general though the numbers of finches etc remains low, and the water level on the flashes is low for the time of year.

Slightly worrying times.