Scaup still from Lewis’s Drove today, an imm male.  Just 3 Dunlin with the Lapwing at Westhay.  Still loads of birds in the area - egrets, Redwings, Chiffchaffs, pipits, more Teal than usual.

Green-winged Teal again/still at Catcott this afternoon.

Good variety around again with others seeing Firecrests, Sibechaff and RND around Decoy;  2 Whoopers and a Goldeneye at Noah’s;  and 3 Whitefronts and 5 Barnacles at Sharpham.

Highlights from Noahs hide and nearby today included a Firecrest close to the hide, two Kingfishers , a Chiff Chaff , several Marsh Harrier upsetting the duck flock and a flyby Sparrowhawk. Walking back to the carpark we had three flyover Cranes.

Odds and ends from this morning:
An imm Scaup was on one of the fishing lakes along Lewis’s Drove today - nice record for there.
6 Dunlin were with the Lapwing in wet fields close by.
The adult female Merlin perched up nicely 50m in front of the Greylake hides first thing.

Warning tape across catcott lows track this evening as apparently a tree has come down before you get to hide, but most of the massive trees across road east of westhay entrance seem to have been cut out now - 2 to 300 lapwing and c.100 redwing on the fields opposite.

2 Goldeneye were on Noah’s this morning;  and at Westhay, big Redwing flocks were back using the damp roadside fields, and the Lapwing flock had 40 Golden Plover and 3 Dunlin mixed in.

At least one possibly two Yellow-browed Warblers at the eastern end of Ham Wall yesterday.  They took a bit of finding amongst the number of Chiffchaffs, Goldcrests & tit sp. present. Some finch flocks - mainly Chaffinch & Goldfinch = beginning to build up along the tracks at both Ham Wall & Shampwick Moor, so worth keeping an eye out for Brambling etc.

There were merlins at greylake and catcott today (also a red kite at former), plus at least 7 golden plover with the lapwings on flooded field almost opposite entrance to westhay

1 imm male Scaup was at Long Drove this morning, and a Green Sand flew over Greylake

An eclipse-type drake Garganey was at Catcott this pm - the recent Greylake bird perhaps - but I couldn’t see the GW Teal.  The Garganey is striking with a very pale face and plenty of white in the super.

A male marsh harrier briefly put up the glossy ibis and c.150 cattle egrets along the burtle/ westhay road

26-Nov-2024
3rd time lucky this morning & with the help of Tom Raven’s hearing I saw 2 Yellow-browed Warblers along main track at eastern edge of Ham Wall c.100m east of windpump on Street Heath

Glossy Ibis update: Looking closely at my recent videos: (A) from a waterlogged Westhay Heath on 06-Nov and (B) from Ham Wall on 17-Nov there are 2 birds involved. (A) shows obvious rufous lesser wing-coverts, while (B) has all similar coloured lesser, median and greater wing-coverts. My video still-frame pics on X (Twitter).

Ring-necked Duck again in the NW corner of Noah’s this morning and the 2 Whoopers skulking nearer the hide in the reeds.  Also 3 Redpoll over, which I think have been a bit scarce lately.
Glossy Ibis still at vp1, Ham Wall and the Yellow-browed was seen again.

Down the road at Greylake, 2 Merlins were close to the hides first thing, a juv and a juv/female.

The Green-winged Teal showed briefly to the east of the hide around mid-day before moving into more distant rushes and out of view. An Otter was also present but didn’t disturb the ducks.
Please note the main hide will be closed for a few days from tomorrow for tree works to be carried out.

Today’s GWT appeared to be a standard adult drake with fully developed white ‘braces’, no horizontal white lines, and subdued cream/yellow head stripes.  I’ve tweeted a photo taken by Charlie W.  My very rough guess at the teal numbers is 200 and they were spending most of their time both distant from the hide and out of view in the rushes…  Also, the big Lapwing flock from Westhay seems to have moved to Catcott.

Paul M saw 5+ Firecrest and a female Goldeneye at/near to Decoy today;  and others reported a Yellow-browed, a RND and a G Ibis still on Ham Wall.

Nice selection, all in all.