So Thursday afternoon saw us motor down the M5 to Upton, I cant believe our last visit was in April and it's only a 25 minute (traffic permitting) drive away. Very remiss of us!
We had been tempted by the reports earlier in the week of a Jack Snipe about, but of course forgetting there was a work party at the Flashes this week, where it had been seen for a few days meant that there was no sign!
As I said it was our first visit in quite a while and the state of the Flashes after out hot summer was still a shock, even though I had seen photos, it was quite desolate. Apart from a few Teal, Mallard, Three Grey Hersons, there was only the large flock of Lapwing, with heads down out of the wind.
This was one of the three Herons that turned up, but being a dull day the photo doesn't door this great bird justice:
We stayed about an hour with only distant Buzzard and Kestrel adding much interest.
We walked back to the car park and drove over to the Moors, enjoying the smooth ride on the newly tarmaced track. We only ventured to the Lapwing Hide as we did need to get home to run a few errands, however we did stay longer than planned and got caught in the rush hour traffic.
So the Moors was its busier self with plenty of Gulls, the odd Canada Goose, Cormorants and two Little Egrets showing well, but again poor light for photography, but here you go;
There were also plenty of Little Grebe about,
Like the Flashes there were plenty of Lapwing about;
As for ducks, in addition to the Mallard, there were again a number of Teal, some Shoveler, Tufted Duck and a few Gadwall. I had a fleeting view of a Kingfisher as it raced away from us, but sadly Tina didn't see it. Up to the point we left we had not seen any small birds at all, but picked up a few as we dipped into the new hide on the way back to the car.
In the end we totalled 33 species for 3 hours, not bad when I thought we weren't going to make 20!
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