Dipping

Bearded Tit - one thing we hoped to see - (c) 2009 Vince Cowell

Bittern - another bird we hoped to see
Marsh Harrier

ditto

Magpie

Today was spent introducing eBirder to a local site he hadn’t visited before, just before he bids the area adios forever! We started by looking for some Bearded Tits without success, although we did hear a distant Kingfisher. A bloke was there who had waited 5 hours the other day & we left him, as he began another 3-hour stint today. We popped over to the old main site and almost immediately saw a Cetti’s Warbler. It called (rather than sang), and spent most of it’s time in the reeds just above the water – it was difficult to get a clear view. We hung around for a while & then proceeded to a hide where 3 Bitterns had been seen yesterday. It was full of beeping photographers, so we gave it a miss. We then went clock-wise round the whole reserve taking in most of the hides. We didn’t see anything really special, just the usual Goldeneye, Shoveler, Gadwall, Pochard and Tufties. We probably saw the Cetti’s again (briefly) in the same hide as earlier. Marcus went to join the photographers, while I had my packed lunch. I had a fairly good view of a Willow Tit, but Marcus was enjoying much better views of a Marsh Harrier. The Bittern failed to show, but we knew which particular reeds it was hiding in! We saw at least 2 Water Rails, and heard at least another 2. Another try for the Bearded Tits ended in failure, as it had for the bloke who had waited for another 3 hours in vain, and the Willow Tit wasn’t an adequate compensation. We crossed the Humber Bridge for the Bullfinches, which only put in an appearance after half-an-hour and then only provided flighty views.