Our next new site (for us) was WWT Steart Marshes, about a 30 minute drive from where we were staying. In fact we visited twice as the first time the weather turned on us and we beat a hasty retreat. As for the reserve, hats off to the WWT. They had things well organised for social distancing, the hides were open, with hand gel at the entrances, seats 'roped' off so you couldn't get too close to one another and while we were in the hide we were politely evicted while one of the wardens came in and sprayed and wiped down. Brilliant! Even the toilets (one at a time) were open.
Having said that from the birding point of view it was quiet, but what can you expect in July. We did get a very distant Curlew Sandpiper, I did take some photos, but they were just a blurry dot, so not putting that up here!
We did get a noisy display from some Oysercatchers:
There were still quite a few Avocets about
and a Juvenile Peregrine stayed rooted to a fence post on the other side of the scrapes. There were also plenty of Hereon around:
Plus a male Reed Bunting giving it some welly!
There were quite a few Shelduck feeding the majority of them youngsters, but no longer ducklings.
Our plan was to the find the Black-winged Stilts over the other side of the reserve, as they would have been a first for us in the UK, but as we started out the wind got up and the rain started and as it was a fair walk to their nesting site, we decided to hold fire and come back in better weather. It wasn't the most productive day only 23 species seen, but Curlew Sandpiper and Skylark were our first for 2020.
As we drove away we looked at the map and thought we'd find somewhere on the coast for a late afternoon coffee, not knowing what we would find we picked Stolford, it took us about 15 minutes to get there by which time the weather had brightened again. Hey ho!
But what a cracking little spot, from up on the sea wall, with the tide out, we saw Curlew and Whimbrel, plenty of Oystercatchers and along the hedgerows behind us, Linnet, Twite, Goldfinch, Whitethroat, Wren, Starling and some House Sparrows. Then out in the bay there must have been circa 500 Shelduck bobbing about, way to many to count! The Whimbrel:
So a few days later in glorious sunshine we went back to Steart, there was not much to add from our first visit apart from the Black-winged Stilts, which were a long long way from the viewing platform, but at least we saw them.They were down among the Egrets so from this picture you can see how far away they were!
I'd much rather see them up close like we do in Lesvos, but sadly not this year. Perhaps next?
So just to finish this post and our visit to Steart, here are a few more photos:
Buzzard,
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