Spent the majority of the day sitting in Island Mere hide with very few other people around. Started off with distant siting of an otter swimming across the mere and several bittern flights none of which came in range of a good picture. A male marsh harrier was giving short bursts of display flying and a pair of bewick swans were in front of the hide.
 |
| Bewick swans |
After a while a male mute swan appeared and immediately decided he didn't want the two bewicks anywhere in his vicinity, he aggressively approached the two and forcibly removed them! With the different species in close proximity the size difference between them was very evident. The bewicks beat a hasty retreat and relocated to the far end of the mere where they spent the rest of the day predominantly upended feeding.
 |
| Mute driving off Bewick |
A peregrine falcon was noted south of the mere hunting over the levels; at one point I observed the falcon catch a reasonably good sized bird and struggle to fly off with it whereupon it was mobbed by up to half a dozen marsh harriers until it dropped its prey. The harriers descended onto the dropped bird and the peregrine continued to spend the rest of day being seen regularly swooping down over the levels but no further successful attempts at a catch were observed.
By the middle of the afternoon there were a lot more people in the hide just in time to see an appearance by two otters in front of the hide. The way the two interacted and the difference in size made me think they were a mother and her young but not being an expert in otter identification I may have been mistaken.
The otters disappeared as quickly as they arrived but just before I left a barn owl put in an appearance and made a terrific sight hunting over the reed beds in the late afternoon sunlight. All in all a very pleasant way to spend the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment