Not a bad day

Since I read about the green sandpiper in the blog below, I've fancied trying to pick one out. A day in Norfolk yesterday only turned up a reed warbler and a dozen curlew flying over, although it was a day out with the kids not a day birding so, while I was keeping my eyes open, I wasn't really trying.

So today I went over to Burwell Fen to see if I could find any of that little flock, and pretty much straight away got one in the shallows, seen indistinctly in the middle of the crappy photo below.

In addition to that, there was a dunlin (which I took a photo of but which is just too embarrassing to publish), eight or ten little egrets, a dozen redshank, five snipe, one lrp and well over a hundred lapwings.

A pair of marsh harriers were active over one of the more southerly reedbeds and as I watched they were joined by two young who flew with them for a few minutes before settling back into the reeds, which I thought was pretty good.  A sedge warbler came and sat in the bushes next to me then played hide and seek for a few minutes while I tried to get a good look.  It's call got fainter and fainter until I was sure it had moved away, then when I stood up it flew out from right in front of where I had been sat. Clever.

A kingfisher flew up the bank and over me, about five yards from my shoulder, giving me one of the best views I've had of one. I thought I'd had all I deserved until this female yellow wagtail came and posed for me as I was packing up.