After deciding to get up after a night in the reeds of blacktoft, a few of this years young marsh harriers have taken to a bit of chasing of teal around xerox. This game went on for much of yesterday morning.
When the light starts to go between 4pm and 6pm around 10 marsh harriers have been seen recently going into roost in the reedbed near singleton. Also around at that time have been up to 2 merlin, 2 barn owls and a sparrowhawk.
Depending on the type of day these marsh harriers can get up anytime between 9am and 11am (today nearer 11am). So if you were to visit the reserve in the morning be sure to spend the first while down at singleton.
In between the wake up of marsh harriers (morning) and them going to roost in the reeds (late afternoon) be sure to check out xerox, marshland and ousefleet hides where the rest of the action has been taking place recently. There are lots and lots of teal, some shoveler, mallard, shelduck etc. Wader wise snipe still number around 100 (favouring marshland), black-tailed godwits, ruff and redshank. When walking up to Ousefleet look for birds in the hedgerow and flying overhead - fieldfares and redwings have started to appear in small numbers.
Bearded tits were fantastic this morning at marshland and from the screen at Ousefleet - with some 60 being seen there today. This spectacle is now coming to and end so I recommend a morning visit on a nice calm day this week for a chance of good views of bearded tit. For the winter bearded tits are still around but are not seen often.