From 20 January
I arrived a 9.00am to sign in at the workshop and meet up with the other hide guides who were on duty that day. We met up in the wildlife watchpoint to make sure the windows were clean, put out some seed for the birds, especially the water rail and to do a bird list for that hide for the day. Being early birds, we were fortunate to see the marsh harrier do a fly past and watched it disappear towards the fire station. A little later a hungry sparrowhawk made an appearance and put the small birds to flight.
I made my way back to the Phil Stead hide. The pool itself was very quiet, with a few teals and mallards round the edges of the pool and a pair black tailed godwits. I spent the last part of the morning in the visitor centre showing visitors who were new to birdwatching the small finches on the feeders and the waterfowl in front of the windows. It is amazing when you can show teal, for example, through the spotting scope so that the visitor can see them ‘close up’. It's easy not to realise how colourful these birds actually are.
After lunch I made my way down to the Saltholme pools hide. In the field opposite I counted 48 barnacle geese in amongst the Canada geese. A lone fieldfare was feeding on the remnants of the hawthorn berries and although the light was very poor, I managed to get a couple of close up photos of it. Here's one of the best ones ...
You can see more pictures on http://www.flickr.com/photos/50783922@N06. We did not have many visitors that afternoon as the weather was so poor. What visitors there were could be found walking down to Haverton Hole where they had distant views of the one long eared owl that had been located earlier in the day.
I hope next week will bring a bit more variety in the birds and better weather.
Cheers,
Mark.