Walk Like an Egyptian

A Sunday afternoon at the in-laws allowed an hour to have a look for the Yellow-browed Warbler wintering in some willow clumps on a small island in the ornamental lake on Wanstead Flats nearby.  With 25 football matches going on and surrounded by roads this was not a quiet and enigmatic experience but watching the Spryte flitting about so unobtrusively in such a small bit of habitat it suggests to me that hundreds must be doing the same, unfound and unseen, hidden away in thickets and tangles, across the land.  To add to the slight surrealism of the scenes a couple of Egyptian Geese harassed me for food and Ring-necked Parakeets were raucous overhead on their way to roost. 

I tried to grab an hour or two last weekend, which I spent unsuccessfully searching for a Great Grey Shrike that has been at Kingfishers Bridge, the mist didn't help on Saturday and on Sunday afternoon I decided to use my time to look at the harrier roost at Wicken.

 

2 ghostly male Hen Harriers came into roost and a single Marsh Harrier too, Barn Owl quartered and a murmeration of maybe 8 - 10,000 Starlings formed over the reedbed.  By far the scarcest visitor though was found at the visitor centre.