27th October..... Bittern.

With yesterday being a right off, due to the seemingly constant rain, only venturing out to check out the Wildlife Photo Exhibition at The Elgiva, which is on 'til Saturday, I had plenty of energy to be up early this morning, with the clocks going back one hour meaning it was 5-15am for breakfast. Arriving at Calvert BBOWT Lake at 7-30 encountering frosty covering in places, Rob was already in the hide having been in residence since just before dawn.

The Bittern being out in full view at the edge of the right hand channel, though unfortunately partly obscured by a few over hanging reeds. What followed was some sort of waiting game between me & the Bittern as it basically remained rooted to the spot for the next hour, occasionally doing a spot of preening, neck stretching & looking around, in between times a couple of Little Grebes floated by the end of the left channel.

A Water Rail busied it self as it scurried along feeding at the waters edge; darting across the middle channel; through the reeds into the Bittern's channel, passing within feet of the still motionless Bittern, it was a game I didn't have the patience for, so I conceded; moving onto Gallows Bridge Farm to visit the new Seasonal Hide.

As I drove down the entrance track the sky was full of little black dots, as I parked up they descended in a line out towards the middle of the main meadow......

Starlings must have been the best part of two thousand birds, grab a couple of images, they were up again, down again, up again only settling for a minute or so, as they worked their way across the meadow & back again, this carried on for twelve minutes 'til they moved off  the reserve.

 

Numerous Meadow Pipits & Sky Larks could be seen as I wandered out to the Seasonal Hide.

As I climbed the steps I could see that a Barn Owl has taken a liking to the building. A female Stonechat worked it's way along the fence line.

Further out Lesser Black-backed Gulls gathered by a pool, Red Admiral flew along the hedgerow. Sparrow Hawk drifted over as I made my way back to the car, as did a Raven.

Back at home a Comma spent thirty minutes feeding on the Michaelmas Daisys 'til the sun put them in the shade.

29th October. c190 Wood Pigeons heading south between 7-00 & 7-20am.
Don.