A Curlew arrived early afternoon and was still present 90 minutes later when I left around 1500. Otherwise same as yesterday but Pintail numbers had halved. The Cattle Egrets were again alongside the road near Godwins Peat Works.

Mid day there were 30+ Pintail on the Lows ( look carefully because there’s a considerable number of Fem /Immatures present!).  Plenty of Wigeon , Teal and Shoveller. Three Marsh Harriers, 2 Kestrels and a Buzzard were the only Raptors i saw in very windy conditions.On the way home there were 30 plus Little Egrets and 5 Cattle Egrets together, north of the road just East of Godwins Peat Wks. travelling towards Westhay

Highlights for this mornings SOS visit were good numbers Wigeon, Teal and Shoveller,  a dozen or so Pintail , three Great White Egrets and three Stonechat from the hide. The fen and heath areas were rather quiet but for those who returned to the hide and stayed a while we were rewarded with the ringtail Hen Harrier that flew in from the NW to SE at about 1:30pm.

Arrived for a late lunch after a mornings Hawfinch hunt in time to see a fly round of 50 Golden Plover at 1415. Unfortunately they didn’t stop! Duck as Ron’s post below.

1230 arrival today,got out of the car to be greeted by the sound of Wigeon calling! I counted 320 duck on the Lows today in the grey cold misty conditions, far and away the highest number I’ve seen here this winter.  Today’s birds comprised,  3 Pintail;  around 30 Mallard;  20 Shoveller and a handful of Teal with the remainder Wigeon.Hopefully they may act as a nucleus and encourage more to join them.

2 juv Pintail were the only birds of note here today ( Yesterdays 25 Mallard and three Marsh Harriers were also seen.).

I arrived at 1000hrs just in time to see a small (20) flock of Wigeon leaving, heading for Canada Fm. lake,  leaving just 20 Mallard 6 Mute Swans and a dozen Greylag Geese.  Stayed much like that for two hrs but eventually 14 Teal flew in. From midday on no further duck, the Teal left but we had visits from A Short Eared Owl, (see separate post);, 3 different Marsh Harriers, 2 Sparrow Hawks a Peregrine and a couple of Buzzards; plus the reserve manager!  Speculating on the almost total lack of duck this winter it’s possible that the dry state of the reserve in late Autumn might be responsible and the wintering duck settled elsewhere and are reluctant to move even now that condition seem ideal, but who knows!