A Ring tailed Hen Harrier flew across the reserve at 1415 today (thurs) unfortunately straight through heading S.West. Reserve 90% frozen over several hundred duck incl. Wigeon Teal, Shoveller and Pintail managed to keep a good area ice free over night. Just one Marsh Harrier and a couple of Sparrow Hawks seen in a couple of hours 1230-1445.

Large area frozen over mid morning but largely clear by 1400.  Good number of loafing duck (Wigeon, Teal, Shoveller, with a few Pintail and Mallard) they eventually started spreading out and feed early afternoon. Two Peregrines around a few Buzzards and just one Marsh Harrier distant. Snipe were in evidence and moved around as the thaw set in.  A brown Merlin was spotted by the entrance of the drove to the hide and later along the road to Catcott village by two independent observers one of whom took a very good photograph, unfortunately not seen by half a dozen of us in the hide , must have passed behind!

Hi Martin,
U p to this ( Sat. morning(  local Nat Eng. have no reason to believe the positive case refers to the two birds from Catcott. At least they have not been notified to confirm this!

BBC news reported an infected Wigeon from Somerset so could be the ones from Catcott?

Male Merlin distant,bombing around the far end near the railway brige chasing something then sitting around for an hour, Male and Female Peregrine sat together on the central stockade at the far end of the reserve ( giving a splendid opportunity to see the size difference). One male one female and two juv. type Marsh Harriers frequenting the reserve. Lots of duck and Lapwing. Fly over flock of Golden Plover (circa 50 heading S.W. and a few Snipe moving around from time to time.
NO more dead duck noted today but I see that there has been a positive H5N8 Avian Influenza result on a dead Wigeon at WWT LLanellli site in S.Wales and as a result the facility there is now closed apparently.

The corpses of two freshly dead drake Wigeon were retrieved from 100M offshore from the hide by SWT. this afternoon to hopefully establish the cause of death, maybe shooting casualties hopefully not victims of Avian Influenza! Any unusual sightings of dead birds especially Wildfowl should be reported while this disease is current.
Three Marsh Harriers attempted individually and unsuccessfully to lift one of the dead Wigeon from the water. A Peregrine and a couple Buzzards were the other raptors present.  30 Golden Plover briefly, one Black Tld G’Wit and many hundreds of Lapwing and the usual wintering duck stayed albeit at a distance while the retrieval operation took place

Male Merlin at the far end of the reserve in view sitting around for 90 mins. early afternoon. Usual ducks present with just a couple of Golden Plover among several hundred Lapwing

No sign of the Whooper or the Little Gull yesterday (Mon.) or today but there’s a patch of smallish white body feathers just outside the hide . they looked very fresh yesterday!!

Wed.The highlight today, a Merlin passing in front of the hide swung west then did a lap of the field NW of the hide before heading off north. A flock of 69 Golden plover ( counted from my photo)! were on the ground for a change after flying around several times. Around 50 BlkTld G’Wits also present plus many hundreds of Lapwing.  2 Buzzards and a Marsh Harrier were again sharing a duck corpse they were joined later by two Ravens one of which carried the remains off landing 100 yds NW of the hide, leaving a couple of Crows cleaning up the odd bits it had left behind. Hundreds of Wigeon plus Teal, Shoveller, Gadwall , Mallard and a dozen or so Pintail present.

13-Dec-2016
Mid-morning: the adult Whooper Swan still present, though in the far LH corner looking from the car park hide. Also, adult Peregrine, 2 Marsh Harriers, 20 Black-t Godwits, 50+ Golden Plover, including a circling flock of c.40, several 100 Lapwings, c.70 Greylag plus a few Canadas’, only 8 Pintail plus other usual dabblers, and a single Stonechat.

12-Dec-2016
An adult Whooper Swan present today, per a tweet on Twitter.

Lunchtime visit today Thurs produced 60 Blk Tld. G’ Wits Plus 1 RUFF;  (Yesterday there was a single Dunlin with the Godwits)  Half a dozen Snipe seen at one time but lagely hidden in the vegetation!
Two Marsh Harriers and two Buzzards were feeding on something fairly large but well hidden half way up the reserve a feast that was also attended by a dozen Crows. 9 Pintail were among the Wigeon, Teal, Shoveller,  Gadwall well spread over the reserve

On Saturday, a ringtail hen harrier caught a teal and ate it close to the hide - shown to us by Stuart from Weston-Super-Mare.  Also, a Merlin flew over as we arrived, and close by at the road side, a nice male merlin on a bush.  A peregrine at Greylake, but not much close to the hides, probably because there is no backing to the higher hide, so it scares off the wildfowl.  Surely a couple of fence panels would sort this?

All thawed out today Ringtailed Hen Harrier flew by a couple of times around mid day. Ducks numbersas yesterday with the addition of 4m and 2f Pintail

Rather grey and misty at lunchtime! After last weeks freeze up, today there was still a considerable area with a thin ice covering. several hundred duck were present mostly Wigeon Teal and a few Shoveller all trying to feed at the edges, skidding along when landing and falling through in places. Should thaw out tomorrow if there’‘s no frost tonight. A couple of Buzzards and a juv. Marsh Harrier were present between 13-1400hrs.

The tide was well in on the reserve ( and pretty well every where else) this afternoon.
A total of around 800+ duck present, the majority were Wigeon with some 30 Shoveller, 30 Teal , a few Gadwall and just one drake Pintail. Unusually most of the birds were to the right of the car park hide