I had a lovely quiet couple of hours at the washes this afternoon. Most of the big flocks have gone, including the Godwits I was hoping to catch. As it was, I got one on it's own, in beautiful red breeding plumage. Don't know who it's going to breed with.
More successful, romantically speaking, were the displaying Great Crested Grebes and the Ruffs, one of which was puffing itself up with some enthusiasm to protect its Reeves from skinnier onlookers.
There were plenty of Redshank looking especially red-shanked, Avocet and Oyster Catchers, as well as upwards of twenty Little Egret. The couple of Grey Heron looked a bit lost and bemused amongst them. The Spoonbill wasn't obvious, but there were a lot of white, heron-ish birds out there, beyond the range of the scope (at least beyond the range of my scope).
Duck-wise, there were hundreds of Wigeon and Gadwall, many Pochard and Teal, quite a lot of Shoveler, Mallard and Tufted and just one rogue female Ruddy Duck, an increasingly rare survivor of the eradication programme.
The recently spotted Baikal Teal and Pectoral Sandpiper were lying low.
I digi-scoped a shot of an Avocet but it's so rubbish it could pass for a Tamworth Pig, so I'm not going to post it.
