Bittern and Water Pipit and a Surprise

Saturday 12th January 2013
The Bittern on the WWT Top New Piece reed-bed, giving a brief full-body view
At the second attempt this year the Bittern finally showed for me at WWT Slimbridge. Thankfully Mark and I didn't have to wait long, and it even came out into the open for a short time. Around 10 Gadwall on South Lake were a another year tick.
A more typical view this morning, but we could see it for most of the time we were in Zeiss Hide - around an hour
Head-on view
Later the Water Pipit was at Berkeley Pill, and a Stonechat was a just south of the mouth of the pill. We found a Jack Snipe too, which was very welcome after not seeing on at all in 2012. Other birds here included seven Common Snipe, c20 Meadow Pipits, six Skylarks, a Redshank, two Ravens and a Great Black-backed Gull on the river. Andy had found an apparently injured Grey Partridge in a tree by the canal back at Quedgeley earlier, near Rea Bridge car park. We went to check it out on the way home, and found the bird on the ground but apparently ok as it took flight and flew across to the other side of the canal; a very surprising patch tick. A male Bullfinch was also near the canal. Back in the garden, birds included two Lesser Redpolls and a female Blackcap.

Comments

Julie Hargreaves said…
Great photos of the Bittern
27 January 2013 at 18:38
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