Brandon Marsh :: 27 June 2015

Out birding with her indoors. A stop at the Badger Tearoom for lunch before we went onto the reserve proper. The area outside the tearoom was overgrown and much of the ground area was not visible - we were honoured with good views from a great-spotted woodpecker.

On the reserve the conditions were so peaceful and there weren't too many people around - it was good to see a few families around. We did come across rather an odd looking long-tailed tit fledgling with brown head rather than the dark / black I am used to seeing. It also had a very long tail from our viewpoint.

From teal hide we saw the green sandpiper but the (probable escapee) fulvous whistling duck had moved on. From the final hide we were treated to a hobby hunting over the fields and returning each catch to a tree opposite - nice. On passing through the Visitor Centre, everyone had gone and we were treated to the swallows darting around the beams and roof - a good way to finish.

Today's sightings (38) included: magpie, feral pigeon, swallow, blue tit, great tit, reed bunting, great spotted-woodpecker, blackbird, carrion crow, willow warbler, tufted duck, woodpigeon, common buzzard, long tailed tit, greylag goose, canada goose, lapwing, common term, black-headed gull, lesser black backed gull, herring gull, oystercatcher, starling, cormorant, mallard, sand martin, coot, moorhen, wren, green sandpiper, redshank, grey heron, mute swan, goldfinch, linnet, chiffchaff, hobby and pied wagtail.