An idiot at Upton!

The title of the post refers to me! It's only that I hadn't charged the battery for my camera, so couldn't take any shots of the Whooper Swans when we went on Monday, just to prove we were there though took a photo from the Water Rail Hide on my phone.

We had a nice few hours though, with the 4 Whoopers showing well, 4 Little Egrets milling around and 3 Snipe on the island in front of the Lapwing hide (seen in the distance in the above photo)

A brief bit of excitement ensued as a Sparrowhawk blasted through the feeders by the Water Rail Hide, not catching anything though. A Water Rail was heard but not seen.

There were of course tons of Coots, with a solitary male Wigeon preferring their company to any of the other ducks that were about. It was nice to see quite a few Pochard about along with the other ducks, Tufted, Shoveler, Teal and Mallard.

A kingfisher put in a supersonic appearance flashing across the water in front of us, blink and you'd have missed it.

Both Great Crested and Little Grebe were also in abundance all now in winter plumage.

So our full list for two hours, just at the Moors, we didn't venture over to the Sailing Club or Flashes this time:

Blackbird

Black-headed Gull

Blue Tit

Bullfinch

Carrion Crow

Coot

Cormorant

Dunnock

Great Crested Grebe

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Great Tit

Greenfinch

Grey Heron

Herring Gull

Kestrel

Kingfisher

Lapwing

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Little Egret

Little Grebe

Magpie

Mallard

Moorhen

Mute Swan

Pied Wagtail

Pochard

Reed Bunting

Robin

Shoveler

Snipe

Sparrowhawk

Teal

Tufted Duck

Whooper Swan

Wigeon

Woodpigeon

Wren