Expected arrival

I had done my loop yesterday and seen very little to speak of, when Steve texted to say 'Bittern near Teal Scrape', it took me over 30 minutes to get there, by which time the little tinker had flown to the back left of the scrape and was not seen again.

My best birds were 4 probable Golden Plover moving West.

This morning I was out in the frosty conditions around 07:20, LFGP offered a few Snipe, a few Wigeon, Teal and Gadwall and Lapwing, 1 Little Egret huddled up in the SW corner looked cold.

I took a shot of the moon and why not nearly everyone else has been lately

On to check Teal hide, others had been there early with no sign.

Bittern hide was more fruitful, 128 Shoveler, 58 Teal, 25 Snipe.

The car park field was almost birdless, but a look over the landfill rewarded me with a large flock of Golden Plover, as usual moving back and forth in front of Bowsey Hill, I estimate it was around 350-400 and at times spread over a wide area.

Brian arrived, I got him on the flock and then about 40+ of them broke away and came SE, passing just beyond Lea Farm buildings, so nice views by our standards. Annoyingly, the camera focused on the nearby bushes, but I left the shot in as an indicator of size of the flock, this is only 60-70% of the flock originally in view.

While all this was going on, I watched 2 Little Egret heading in from the North, but hey kept going over Lavell's.