Monday 22 October 2018

Napton Reservoir & WkWT Brandon Marsh :: 22 October 2018

There have been reports that a pair of bearded tits have been seen at Napton Reservoir. So on my day off today, I thought I'd drag Charlotte over to see if we could find them. When we got onto the waters edge you could feel the wind was cold - even the bright sun didn't seem to protect and so by the time we were close to the reeds Charlotte was already feeling the chill. We passed @Cymbelinelister and @daco1600 coming the other way - they said the male showed briefly in the channel. We waited but it didn't show for us.

A sandwich in the car and off we set for WkWT Brandon Marsh, stopping for a cup of tea and coffee on arrival. We stopped at the Jon Baldwin Hide and noted the higher water level, the larger numbers of teal and wigeon, and watched the cormorants bask in the sun. A photographer in the hide said a jack snipe had been spotted from the Teal Pool Hide and so we made that our next stop. Even before we got there we had talked with a birder who had just come from the Teal Pool and said he hadn't been able to find it, neither could we.

JayNothing extra from the East Marsh Pool or on our arrival at the Carlton Hide. The water has been taken over by a weed which covered almost three quarters of the visible pool. Nothing doing here.

At the Ted Jury Hide there was only a grey heron in the distant water. However, on opening the side window we had a good look at a single jay ... enough to get Charlotte’s attention.

Sightings (22) at Brandon Marsh: black-headed gull, blue tit, chaffinch, coot, cormorant, gadwall, goldfinch, great tit, grey heron, greylag goose, jay, lapwing, little egret, moorhen, robin, rock dove / feral pigeon, shoveler, teal, tufted duck, wigeon, woodpigeon and wren.

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