Sunday January 29 - Morton Bagot

This morning dawned grey, mild and almost windless. I was joined not just by Dave, but also by his brother Paul from Filey who I hadn't seen for over twenty years. Obviously you want to show your patch off to best effect, so Dave and I knew we would have our work cut out.

In fact, there was news from yesterday. John Chidwick had been round and as well as the expected Barn Owl and Pied Wagtail roost he had seen 100 Lapwings and a Golden Plover flying over. 

This morning we duly ticked off the Barn Owl before heading for the pool field where we were hoping to find another of the site's specialities. Eventually we located a single Jack Snipe and a Common Snipe. Attempts to film/photograph the former in flight can best be described as mixed. Paul has kindly sent me his photo which I have attempted to enlarge in my usual cack-handed way. Sorry Paul.

Jack Snipe - per Paul S

Moving on to the flash field we found that some of the ice has finally thawed and there were a few ducks and waders present; specifically 26 Teal, four Mallard, seven Lapwings, and three Shovelers.

Shoveler

We also saw five Jays and later heard another, making quite a good haul for the site at this time of the year.

Other than about nine Skylarks, a handful of finches, and 30 to 40 Redwings we didn't have much else to show Paul, so I felt he was being very generous when he said he thought the place was excellent as a local patch. Perhaps we don't always appreciate the familiar.