The Short-eared Owls are still being seen over the west end of the reserve of an evening and Les got some more excellent shots as up to five birds quartered the marsh.
Julie and Ros (two of our Field Teaching team) went for a walk today and found some interesting stuff out on the riverside path.
There are lots of Shaggy Ink Cap Mushrooms around at the moment and they got some nice shots of some in various stages of development.
Dhruti has been out today strimming those parts of the Purfleet Scrape that were left intact in the re-landscaping and were previously untouchable by the tractor and mower! Two Water pipits and a Little Egret have also been exploring the uncovered expanse.
Meanwhile Marc has been getting stuck in...
At long last I managed to upload the short video that I made with the Kids Birdwatching Club on the 12th and whether they use it or not it is now part of Britain in a Day film archive. You never know we may appear in the finished film next year!
We were watching the White-fronted Geese at the time and as you can see the kids were all quite excited, especially Ben who is rather fond of the species!
And so on the day that the last of the major works on the new Purfleet Scrape are completed a Dunlin chose to come in and test out the lie of the land. No water yet bar a few puddles but this will change shortly and this lone bird should be joined by the other 499 that are currently around along with a host of other wadery friends. There is still work to do but things are looking very promising and Nicole, Norman, the contractors and our ecologists have done a magnificent job in under two weeks to once again change the face of the reserve.
You can not get any closer to the Purfleet Hide!
Thanks to Graham White for the images whilst out working on the project on Friday.