Sunday April 7 - The big ones

 A day of strong, arguably gale force, south-westerlies is not the sort of day you would think would produce a lot at Morton Bagot. But it's a Sunday, and being creatures of habit, Dave and I met for the usual stroll around the patch.

It didn't take long for the first sign that this might actually be an extraordinary day. Four House Martins and a Swallow shot southwards into the teeth of the gale. This was my earliest Morton Bagot House Martin record by one day, beating one in 2016. 

We reached the scrape field and despite seeing only a Mute Swan and a Little Egret, decided to walk along the footpath which cuts the corner. A Pipit got up and gave a single thin "tsee" call. Possibly as much to engage Dave's attention as anything I said "Water Pipit". It gave another short single call which didn't sound quite like Meadow Pipit and we got onto it, noticing it looked grey and had white outer-tail feathers. We watched helplessly as it flew off into the wind but then turned around and dropped into some longish grass next to the path. We were very keen on it. But how could we get a proper view? We decided Dave would try to encourage it to walk to the shorter grass where we might be able to see it properly.

At this point everything started to unwind disastrously. Dave told me he could see it in the long grass, so I went to join him. He said he'd had a brief view of its head, but he hadn't noticed a white supercilium. Then we realised we could hear voices. Three joggers were running along the path towards us. Inevitably they flushed the bird which took off without calling and eventually dropped into the juncus surrounding the scrapes. Attempts to refind it produced two pipits, but they both looked more like Meadow Pipits and maybe hadn't got up from the juncus. After half an hour we decided we hadn't got enough to claim it.

We moved on to the next field and as Dave veered off to check out another Pipit, I glanced to the north-east and spotted six large birds approaching. A second later I was bellowing "Cranes". Dave heard the shout and rushed up as I pointed to where they were. They weren't close, but there was no doubt what they were.

Six Common Cranes

They started to circle and looked as though they were checking out the flash field.

But they obviously thought better of it, and drifted higher and away initially north-eastwards and then eastwards in the direction of Henley.

We'd been feeling pretty down after the Pipit episode, so its fair to say this was just what the doctor ordered. 

We carried on to the flash field, noting a Shelduck, three Lapwings, 10 Teal and a pair of Shovelers. This was more like the Morton Bagot we knew so well.

The pair of Shovelers

However, we also added three Sand Martins and more Swallows before Dave returned the compliment by shouting to attract my attention. In the distance over Bannams he could see not only a Red Kite, but also a Goshawk. It was too far away to even attempt a photo, but was distinctive enough for all that. The local crows and pigeons must also have seen it because there was a great panic of birds scattering before it.

We decided to give the scrape field one more try in case the Pipit had returned, but it hadn't.

This Skylark was standing close to the spot where we had last seen the Pipit.

What a day it was, but what a day it could have been. We are left to reflect that we reckon we find one decent bird annually at Morton Bagot....so its probably not worth us going again this year!