The blog title says it all, really. This morning my wife and I drive up the A12 with the sole aim of hearing (and hopefully seeing) at least one Nightingale. EWT Fingringhoe Wick is famous for its stock of these singing skulkers, and is as reliable a place to see them as they come. After the anticipation, it ended up being a bit of an anticlimax! It went something like this. Parked car. Got out of car. Hear Nightingale. Walk to bush heard from. See Nightingale! Yep, the whole process from parking to seeing pasted less than the time you're supposed to brush your teeth for. We had good views of at least 3 different singing males, and heard 8 overall on the day!! My favourite bit of the reserve however, is the estuary, you get cracking views from three separate vantage points and two hides. Despite the gloom and drizzle, sightings included Curlew, Bar Tailed and Black Tailed Godwits, Dunlin, Golden and Grey Plover (year tick), Great Crested Grebes and best of all, the first Whimbrel for the year as well!!!! Deciding to walk the scrubland for Whitethroats, we saw Chiffchaffs and. Blackcaps in good numbers, but none of our target birds. Hearing a calling cuckoo was bonus, however, with the rain strengthening we were unable to locate the bird, and made do with cake from the visitor centre instead!
As we were so close, it seemed rude not to have a scan from the Layer Breton Causeway over Abberton Resevoir. So a short drive later, and I was looking at soaring Swallows, Mallards and Greylags begging for food (had none, sorry) Tufted Ducks, Mute Swans and ooh, what's this, slightly different duck (not uncommon at Abberton, it's teeming with hybrids), female, diagnostic pink spot on bill and dark nape? Female Red Crested Pochard!!!! Year tick number 4 on the day, 151 total. By this point the rain had got silly so it was home to chocolate and Breaking Bad!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment