Finally, a little bit of sunshine to relieve the gloom of the last few days. To celebrate I had an outing to Summer Leys to look for the Glossy Ibis. As is frequently the case I failed in that ambition but was rewarded with fine views of Water Rail, more of which in a minute.
I was pleasently surprised at how empty the car park was at Summer Leys as I wasn't early arriving after having walked the dog first.. I had Rotary Hide to myself and enjoyed the peace and quiet whilst scanning a distant Teal that I was suspicious of, groundlessly as it turned out. the only bird of note was a beautiful drake Pintail.
Rotary Hide was next and also tranquil. The hoped for Water Rail failed to appear so I moved on to the area next to the Paul Britten hide. A good number of birds were loafing off Gull Island including a Yellow-legged Gull amongst the Great Black-backed, Herring, Common and Black-headed Gulls. A large flock of Lapwing with approximately 11 Golden Plover intermingled were in the same area.
The Stand-up/screen Hide was next to look for the Glossy Ibis, unsuccessfully as it turns out. The first of 4 Great-white Egrets was feeding to the left of the hide.
A stop at the Paul Britten hide on the return journey produced 5 Snipe, one feeding happily along the shore and 4 flying over. The remaining 3 GWEs were seen from here too.A lady called Sharon joined me in the hide and told me she had just had her best ever views of Water Rail from the Rotary Hide so I decided to have another crack at it on my way back. This turned out to be a good plan as I was also treated to lovely views of the bird as it scampered about and squealed away in the vegetation.
Regards,
Neil H.
Water Rail
Teal
Great-white Egret
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