Brendon's Marsh

 Wednesday March 19

No Garganey at Buckenham, maybe we'd be lucky at Hickling. At least two had been reported yesterday - on Brendon's Marsh. The only viewpoint for us is from the track down to Whiteslea Lodge. There is a big enough area to park the car  below the steep slope to the top of the bank, from which there are views across Brendan's Marsh. It looked like Brendan's Lake when I reached the top. A lot of water with shallow reedy islands, plenty of places where these elusive little ducks can sleep and hide. I spent an hour scanning  carefully, backwards and forwards, finding plenty of Shoveller, Teal, Gadwall, one or two Wigeon, Curlew, Redshank, Avocets and Coot. We did hear the musical bugling of Cranes, but none flew for us.

Reluctantly, we gave up. Imagine how we felt later when news came through of two Garganey, a Little Ringed Plover, and five Little Gulls had been seen from the 'platform' - a small raised viewing area for two people built when the Stilts bred here a few years ago. That's on the way to Stubb Mill and not available to us.

A pleasant woman also showed us a photo of a Bittern on the back of her camera  - she had just taken it from Bittern Hide down the road. towards the Lodge.

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