Will I see Better?

 Monday September 15

My first birding day out, nearly three weeks after the lens replacement in my left eye. Mr Burton pronounced the result 'very good' when I saw him last week. Apart from a small misty area due to macular degeneration, I can indeed see everything much more clearly. Thanks go to my. surgeon. My right eye will be operated on next Tuesday. 

It's a shame that the birds didn't turn up for us until we got to Snettisham. When we met Pauline at Fakenham Morrrison's - after buying lunch from Greggs of course - we still hadn't reached double figures. Seeing a group of birders at the top of the slope to the reserve is always encouraging. We discovered later that it had been a high tide 'wader spectacular' morning. The tide was well out by now but near enough to marvel at the number and variety of birds on show, feeding avidly on the receding tideline, or, roosting in huge swathes along the mud. I never tire of this sight. Even if identification is difficult, becoming near impossible, as the water receded.

Through my scope, I managed to identify a Spotted Redshank and  one Little Stint before distance and heat haze intervened. Most of the birds were Knot and Black-tailed Godwits. on the mud were Curlew, Redshank, Ringed Plover, Shelduck and a large group of roosting Golden Plover. The first sound I'd heard on arrival was the plaintive call of Grey Plover, and indeed there was a good sprinkling of them still in their black and silver breeding plumage. Why do they not congregate like their Golden cousins? I always see them singly.

The reserve pit had more Black-tailed Godwits, an island full, over 20 Cormorants and I counted at least thirty Spoonbills on the usual far bank. On the return drive, I counted over fifty Spoonbills on the tide's edge. We think that there were over eighty on the reserve, there could have been more. A lovely sight. Amazingly, there were no Greylag nor Egyptian Geese  anywhere. 

The rest of our time was spent searching and - largely - not finding. We didn't find any Cattle Egrets today, and the only passerines were one Blackbird and a fly-by Long-tailed Tit. I really enjoy the searching, the occasional success is the day's sauce. Pauline is a good, undemanding company, who loves birding as much as do we. And Manchester United!

 

 

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