A Sunny Evening at Upton Warren

With a busy social life and lots of things going on we took the opportunity to have a couple of hours at Upton whilst the Sun went down. So we stuck to the flashes as we only had a relatively short time, going straight down to the Avocet Hide and staying put.

There wasn't much going on on the Sailing Pool as we walked around it , lots of Mallard, some Canada Geese and few Black Headed Gulls and Martins hawking. First surprise was the shiny new gate now at the entry to the reserve. Nice!  Anyway the walk through to the next new gate was quiet, we did briefly see a Warbler on the new barbed wire fence there, I think a Willow Warbler, but not 100%

So onwards through gate 2 and into the hide, as we had come virtually straight from work only stopping to get changed a put some hot water in a flask, the priority was to get a cuppa! With that done we could settle down.

I was glad to find (after asking!) that the Little Stint was still about as it would be a year tick. In fact only our 3rd sighting. Sadly it stayed a fair distance away wanting to keep company with a Plover and a Ruff:

The other highlight was our first Snipe for quite a while:

Thankfully he was a bit closer than the Stint. There were a few Common and Green Sandpipers about:

Curlew (14) and Redshank (Little Stint in the background):

Other than the above there were pf course the usual suspects around, Lapwing, Mallard, Coot, Moorhen, quite a few Teal, Black Headed Gulls a plenty, a couple of Lesser Black Backed Gulls, Pied Wagtail, Woodpigeon, Stock Dove, Magpie and Crow.

As the light was fading we took a walk back and made a short stop at the Cuckoo Hide, a couple of shot's from the short walk there:

We decided of course to have another cup of tea whilst in there, adding Shoveler, Jackdaw, Robin, Blue and Great Tit to the total. We were puzzled by a little chap in the caged feeder, that on closer inspection turned out to be a juvenile Bullfinch (a poor photo, but it was nearly dark!)

So a walk back to the car, by this time a Mute Swan had turned up on the Sailing Pool and a brief sight was had of a Rabbit on the track.

30 Species for today, so til' next time................................