Far Ings (now called Ness End Farm!) 1

Reed Bunting (male)
Reed Bunting (male)
Shoveler in flight

ditto

Redshank - defying the Humber tide!

Tufted Duck in flight

Wigeon in flight

Wigeon coming in to land

Record shot of Bittern

Record shot of Bittern

Bittern dropping in to reeds - just before it completely disappeared!

Cormorant (c) 2008 Les Fisher

The weather forecast let us down today, but our standby location of Far Ings certainly didn’t! There were several excellent birds, but these differed depending on the time of day. For most of the morning class the favourite was a Bittern, which flew across the far side of the main pool as seen from Reedy Hide. However, Colin preferred the Bullfinch, which was first identified by Margaret. In the afternoon the first bird we saw from the main hide was a Marsh Harrier; whilst one of the last birds was the Kingfisher, spotted by John. Norma enjoyed the Willow Tit, which was located from its nasal “chay-chay-chay” call on the walk opposite the Hotel. Colin spotted the Red-throated Diver under the Hotel in the morning, whilst we saw presumably the same bird in the afternoon fly over us in a northerly direction. One of the surprises was the large number (30+) of Shovelers, which were very active (see flight shots above). Males seemed to outnumber females by 7 to 1! On the Humber bank during the afternoon we saw a group of 6 Wigeon, which seemed to be grazing on seaweed! Bridget was impressed with the close views of the Reed Buntings around the feeding station, and these were still present at lunch time when the above pictures were taken. Les identified the only 2 Pochard on site, and he spotted a perched male Sparrowhawk, which then flew low over the reedbed. A very enjoyable day for all!