Sunday March 10 - Good day at Morton Bagot (and a good bird at Earlswood)

 Before I get to today's visit to Morton Bagot I should wind the clock back to yesterday. John Oates found an adult Mediterranean Gull at Earlswood, and I was able to twitch it efficiently before doing the Saturday shop.

Mediterranean Gull with B H Gulls at Earlswood

They really are stunning birds. I believe this is the second there this year. 

So, back to this morning. The weather had taken a turn for the worse, but the mixture of light drizzle and heavy cloud was not bad enough to put me off. John C had visited on Saturday and it had been pretty quiet.

Dave was away (Mother's Day) so I had the place to myself. A ringed Marsh Tit in a hedge beyond the small pond was a decent start. The scrape field still contained a pair of Stonechats (the male colour-ringed and the female just metal ringed), while four or five Reed Buntings continued to make light work of decimating the bulrush heads.

I was trying to photograph a singing Goldcrest when the sound of a rush of wings proved to have come from a flock of Starlings heading north. Several more parties followed, and I convinced myself I was witnessing visible migration. However, I later discovered a whole load more in the flash field and so they were probably an accumulation of the birds seen "migrating". The flock was actually the largest I have ever seen here, and I would conservatively estimate 1000+.

Starlings (861 in this shot). There was a smaller flock just out of frame.

Moving hastily on towards the flash field I flushed a party of 26 Meadow Pipits before reaching the viewing point. It was immediately clear that two pairs of Avocets had arrived, and I spent a considerable time trying to get all four in one shot. They were clearly two pairs, and they didn't like each other much.

Avocets scrapping

All four spatially distancing

In addition to the Avocets I counted 19 Teal, 23 Lapwings, and two Green Sandpipers.

Lapwings (and a Starling)

Both Green Sandpipers

Slightly unusual for Morton Bagot were three immature Mute Swans which circled before two of them landed on the nearest flash.

Mute Swans

As I left the flash field the weather started to deteriorate, but I still heard my first singing Chiffchaff of the year and added a third Stonechat and a second Marsh Tit to the day's tally before reaching my car.

I'm quite tempted to put the moth trap out tonight.