No islands

I often make reference to the fact that I chose not to do the islands as part of this crazy hobby but the last few weeks have again tested my resolve with so many lifers getable should I be able to justify the time and money involved. So far I remain steadfast in my approach and find it helps with the anxiety associated with rare bird news coming in from the islands. I know I'd love any time on the islands and I expect the day to come when my resolve breaks, I've been tested the most with last years Blackburnian Warbler and this years Red-footed Booby but for now it's the odd mainland twitch, the odd reasonably close day out and mostly the local escapes like this mornings trip to the valley where I sat in the Bittern hide for a few hours enjoying prolonged views of a Bittern as it sat stationary in the reeds fishing for Perch taking no fewer than eight fish in two hours. Eventually the bird left the safety of the reeds to walk up the channel away from me but stopped half way to show concern at something overhead that clearly bothered it although from my position in the hide I couldn't tell what it was.

A Kingfisher flew in and sat just long enough for a single shot before heading out over the lake towards the river. Water Rail showed on several occasions and a Grey Heron dropped in. Little Grebe tried to feed but one of the local Mallards took offence and kept chasing back out to deeper water. Parakeets and Great-spotted Woodpecker visited the feeders and a group of 15 Barnacle Geese dropped in for a visit. Of note was a large mixed flock of Thrushes that flew over the lake mostly Redwing but appeared to contain some Fieldfare too.

Barnacle Geese

Dog Fox

Grey Heron

Kingfisher

Little Grebe

Little Grebe

Water Rail

An enjoyable couple of hours in a very quiet public hide with some good birds.

Still looking for a few year ticks to close that gap on my worst year but they're not coming to me so I guess at some point I'll need to go to them if I really want them enough.