Sunday November 29

Cloudy with a strong westerly wind. Mild. The forecast rain held off, so while on Thursday I got wet and saw nothing, today I stayed dry and saw nothing. Well nearly nothing, a distant Peregrine was a minor highlight.

I had taken note that Upton Warren hosted a Great White Egret yesterday, but was not entirely surprised to find just three Grey Herons as the only occupants of the flash field. There is little evidence of any ornithological link between Morton Bagot and Upton Warren despite the sites being a little over ten miles apart as the egret doesn't fly. The reason is probably that Upton sits on the Salwarpe, which drains into the Severn, while we are in the Arrow Valley where all the streams flow into the Avon.

Strong winds also fail to bring any ornithological goodies to Morton Bagot (it's small water area is probably the issue here) but it does usually produce an increase in large gulls, and today was no exception. I counted 42 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and two Herring Gulls heading east during the morning.

The pool contained 65 Teal and about 100 Mallard, which stayed only while I lurked behind the hedge. As soon as they realised I was there they were off.

Teal on the main pool

And so was I.