The weather over the past few days has, by & large, been fantastic! Gloriously sunny days, light (or even no) winds, crisp & clear. On Saturday afternoon, the visibility was so good that, looking through my 'scope from Kingshill Farm, I could pretty much count how many people (12 - 15 I thought) were up on the Capel Fleet raptor view point more than 8km to the east! And picking out a couple of red-breasted merganser and a single female goldeneye amongst the hundreds of wigeon, teal, shelduck and pintail on the Swale at Sharfleet was a doddle! Not a ripple on the water. Still, I've said it before and will doubtless say it again over the next few weeks (unless things change drastically) - I wish it would rain. A LOT!! It may still be the middle of January, but in a few short weeks, the lapwing will be starting to wind up for the breeding season and unless the marsh is a whole lot wetter, it could have dire implications for chick survival this year. Obviously, it's good if the adults have handy local feeding areas, but it's absolutely crucial for the chicks when they hatch. They can't fly off out onto the estuary to feed if the marsh dries out.
Our (semi-) resident rough-legged buzzard has been venturing further east of late. It was seen from our furthest hide on Saturday, but I couldn't find it today. But the other regular raptors: peregrine, merlin, buzzard & short-eared owl are still putting on a good show. Having spent Tuesday & most of Wednesday cooped up indoors on a 1st Aid refresher course, on my return to the reserve mid-pm, the fabulous sunny weather was just too nice to even think about plugging in to a computer! So I took a walk down to the reserve instead. The rough-leg was sitting on the seawall out towards Elmley Hill, but had a very bright sun above it. A common buzzard or two were on the marsh north of the track. By the bench halfway to the hides, a Cetti's warbler called - a flat "plitt" sort of sound, which they sometimes extend into a more wren-like trill. It didn't show of course. Sitting on the benches at Wellmarsh, I could see a merlin & a peregrine sitting out enjoying the late afternoon sunshine; and off to the north, a small group of 6 adult Bewick's swans and a flock of 32 white-fronts. I've not seen the swans since then, but the geese are still around in varying numbers, usually with greylags. On Sunday, there were at least 2 ruff, feeding alongside the access track with a flock of lapwings & starlings. There's still a pair of stonechats on the reserve and this afternoon there was a spotted redshank calling somewhere out on the Swale. Nothing much on the Flood today - it has of course now got water on all the pools, but that was frozen.