Brandon Marsh :: 25 March 2012

With Charlotte out playing tennis for the second day running, it was time for a visit and walk around Brandon Marsh. With kids in tow, we arrived for a late lunch in the Badger tearoom. Views of bird from here was restricted by one of the staff filling up the various feeder and tables outside the window - no nuthatch or great spotted woodpeckers today.

With ice-creams in hand, we set off around the reserve. The weather was stunning again - you just can't believe we are not in the middle of summer and that there are still few leaves on the trees. Immediately we saw kestrel and buzzard overhead, then geese on the golf course before we got onto the water and the various ducks and gulls. Best of all was the sight of a grass snake swimming passed the front of the hide, not far from a beautiful great crested grebe.

The reserve still seems quiet, perhaps waiting for the changing of the guard as migration kicks in. The change was brought home with my first sighting of a swallow this year, not far from the East Marsh Pool hide.

Todays sighting numbered 38 and included: carrion crow, blue tit, great tit, magpie, robin, greenfinch, reed bunting, dunnock, woodpigeon, chaffinch, mallard, blackbird, black headed gull, buzzard, greylag goose, canada goose, long tailed tit, mute swan, shoveler duck, lapwing, moorhen, teal, cormorant, tufted duck, coot, great crested grebe, lesser black backed gull, common gull, raven, snipe, oystercatcher, little ringed plover, redshank, grey heron, pheasant, wren, kestrel and swallow.

Perhaps the whitethroat, chiffchaff and cetti's warbler will be out in larger numbers when I get back again - missed them all on this visit.