Friday was rather a nice day with clear skies, much sunshine and a moderate breeze. It got to about 11C in the middle of the day, but was only 4-5C when I left about 16:45 - the clear sky causing it to cool rapidly. Water levels are high and there is extensive shallow water on the fields which were packed with wildfowl and waders.
A very good day for birds of prey! When I arrived, there was a male Sparrowhawk sitting in the hedge not far from the back of the car park and it just sat there, apparently enjoying the sunshine, for some time. A Peregrine was also sitting on the gate in the middle of the fields with flocks of Wigeon grazing in front of it. Later on, there was a Merlin perched on a post in the saltmarsh. Towards dusk, I went to the 'raptor watchpoint' on the seawall near the western end of the reserve looking for harriers and owls. Lots of Marsh Harrier activity and, at one point I counted 9 in view. A nicely marked male came along the top of the marsh and put up a group of 6 Greenshank from one of the pools - the only ones I saw all day. A ring-tailed Hen Harrier also came very close, coming virtually over my head. I also saw Kestrel and Buzzard during the day, but no owls.
As expected, large numbers of Brent Geese are now present. There was a sizeable flock feeding along the banks of the Witham just east of the reserve and many were coming in to drink and bathe. There was also a flock of Pink-feet on farmland just west of the reserve, estimated around 1,000, which came in briefly to the wet fields late in the morning, but then disappeared west again, although I could hear them in the distance from time to time. The ducks were dominated by Wigeon, with good numbers of Teal, Shoveller, Gadwall and Pintail. Tufties, Pochard and 4 Goldeneye (1m, 3f) on the main pool and a Long-tailed Duck (which, it seems, was first reported on 16th Oct) was on the pools between the 360 Hide and the road. There were 2-4 Whooper Swans all day on the main pond in front of the visitor centre, but 2 more skeins cam in at dusk of around 30 and 15, including some family parties with cygnets. No Mute Swans (or Coot!) today.
It was low tide around midday and high tide wasn't until after dark, so waders were not numerous - except Lapwing and a large flock of Golden Plover. Dunlin, Ruff, Redshank, Black-tailed Godwit and Snipe were around in small numbers and, at dusk from the watchpoint, there were some flocks of Knot swirling in the distance.
4 Cattle Egrets dropped in briefly on one of the islands in the main pool about 11am, but they quickly left - fling east. No Spoonbills today - although they were reported in recent days. Probably coming in off the Wash to roost at high tide.
Passerines included a large flock of finches around the car park and the visitor centre. Mainly Greenfich and Goldfinch but some Chaffinch. Apparently, there has been at least one Brambling with them, but not today as far as I saw. There was a Stonechat along the fence towards the East Hide and a small flock of winter thrushes (around 30-40) along the hedges on the western edge - mainly Fieldfare, but a few Redwing and Balckbirds with them.
All in all a very good day with 63 species in total, plus a couple of Brown Hares on the wet fields.
Transport: 63.8 miles, 15kWh, about 50% PV. We are getting to the time of year (roughly Nov - mid Feb) when our solar panels do not generate enough to keep the car fully charged. We get our elecricity from Octopus who have a tariff for EV owners with a cheap rate between 00:30 and 04:30. So I scheduled a couple of hours of charging (at 7kW) starting 00:30 since it is likley to be almost all wind generated at this time. According to electricity info, the carbon intensity was aroun 125-130 g C02/kWh.
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