Tuesday p.m. Great White Egret at the back end. Lots of duck close to the hide including a good number of Pintail. Not a single raptor seen anywhere all day - must be down to the strong wind I suppose.

!230 -1400 visit Water level now 1.73M AOD (just about right) .
Usual Peregrine on fencing stockade at the far end of the reserve, I coincided with the SWT management team visiting they were inspecting the pump house area? result all duck had moved way back!  Duck nos. were down with about 100 Teal, same no. of Wigeon , 30 Shoveller and 10 Pintail and a few Mallard present and occasional distant views of 2 Marsh Harriers

A dark and windy day on Saturday.

Plenty of winter ducks now
Marsh harrier scared the ducks, which settled close to the hide
1 Peregrine on the ground, before zipping off to the pylons on the left
1 Great White Egret
3 Roe deer

A small flock of Lapwing on the fields opposite Westhay reserve

Pictures at:
http://www.efrs.co.uk

Spent a few hours at Catcott today.
Plenty of Wigeon, Teal, Pintail and Shoveller some of these close to the hide. The Golden Plover were on the ground until taking to the air following a flyby from a Marsh Harrier. Peregrine sat in the tree to the left then moved to a gate post right at the back, before flying off to one of the pylons on the right hand side. Clearly this bird doesn’t need a lot of food 😊
Grey Herons all over the place and a GWE, Canada Geese which were moved along by a pair of Mute Swans.
3 Buzzards
Pied Wagtails and Meadow Pipits on the fence to the right of the hide.
Marsh Harrier often seen flying down the tree line to the right.

Lunchtime visit today (Fri). Water level is now 1.65 M above datum, There is now a good area of water close to immediately in front of the hide and stretching away to the right, 30 Pintail present plus numerous Teal and Wigeon a few Shoveller and Mallard plus a dozen Canada Geese. For the first time this winter a pair of Tufted Duck appeared. Lapwing circa 100 came and went regularly but the highlight for today was a small flock of around 17 Golden Plover on the ground when the sun shone! The usual Peregrine was tree bound for the couple of hours I was there. Presumably it had fed earlier.

13-Dec-15
Fairly quiet this morning, just the usual ducks in reasonable numbers, including 15+ Pintail, and the Teal seem to be increasing. Also 4 Snipe, 1 Black-t Godwit, Great White Egret, male Marsh Harrier, female Sparrowhawk and 4 Stonechats.

After an unsuccessful Dusky Warbler hunt at Ham Wall (0930 1130). I moved to Catcott via Chilton Moor (where I saw nothing)!
Catcott Lows(1200-1530 today Tues.)  Single Peregrine sitting in usual spot at far end of the reserve on the stockade for an hour eventually took off flying up in response to another Peregrine over flying E -W,  it then returned to it’s perch and was still in the same place when I left. Helpfully a Marsh Harrier flew over the reserve and put up a large no. of duck that had previously been out of sight, numbering 250+ Wigeon; 50 Shoveller, 20+ Pintail and about the same number of Teal. Other raptors were a male Sparrowhawk and a couple of Buzzards. {Water level is now 1.62 above datum).

Short 90 minute visit Tues p.m Water level still low but rising slowly, now 1.60 above datum needs around another 60 mm to be really useful.
Difficult to make any accurate count but around 50 Wigeon ;50 Shoveller; 20 Teal; 10 Pintail and around half a dozen Mallard. A Peregrine sitting on the wooden corral at the back and flyovers by one Kestrel and 2 Buzzards.
now to see if I can actually post this!