This morning I did what was probably the best WeBS count I've ever done. I got to the British Steel hide just as the sun was rising. The tide was pretty high breaking over the banks of the saline lagoon and flooding the roost islands. I managed good counts of all birds except for Knot with only 65 logged. Hopefully the other 200+ will have been picked up by another counter on the estuary!
Other totals include five Spotted Redshank, 22 Greenshank, 300 Redshank, 658 Black-tailed Godwit, one Bar-tailed Godwit, 415 Curlew, 66 Dunlin, 95 Lapwing, 185 Wigeon and 23 Teal. Scanning across the flooded saltmarsh, I came across the Great White Egret standing more than twice the height of the nearby Little Egrets.
On to the other side of the reserve, the Millennium Wetlands. I started off at the Peter Scott hide where just as I'd finished counting, the first Bittern of the winter flew up from close to the channel we cleared out earlier this week and flew away from me over the Deep Lake. Although, brief, I got a really good view of this amazing species, but no photo because my camera was in my bag.
Other birds which I missed this morning were a Marsh Harrier (not the wing tagged bird), a Merlin and a Mandarin Duck.
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