Tuesday at last saw a bit of a break in the continually miserable weather as I made the trip over to Strumpshaw Fen and joined a couple of other people sitting in the fen hide looking out for Bitterns. A couple of hours later and the only Bitterns seen were at a distance and the usually reliable Marsh Harriers were notable by their absence; the only thing worth seeing was a Heron that landed in front of the hide and proceeded to catch a pike that must have been in excess of 2lb and which it duly swallowed without difficulty. The Heron did however spend the next hour or so sitting quietly letting its meal digest. Two Otters were seen briefly heading towards the river sluice so I hastily moved there and was rewarded by the sight of one of the Otters moving towards me along the channel but unfortunately it sensed my presence before getting too close and rapidly 'porpoised' its way back down the channel. It was amazing to watch this behavior that I had not seen before and certainly made me smile. I stayed at the river for the next 30 minutes or so and eventually heard an Otter calling which turned out to be coming from the river behind me and I briefly spotted the animal about 30 yards away; whether this was the same Otter that was in the channel or another I'm not sure but I decided to leave them in peace and make my way round to the reception hide.
There always seems to be a collection of waterfowl in front of this hide and this day was no exception with a group of Coot as well as quite a few ducks of various species. The photos below show firstly a pair of Coot, a male and then a female Shoveller Duck and finally a pair of Gadwall Duck. The Gadwall is a common visitor in the winter when there are thought to be some 17,000 birds in the UK however in the summer it is much more unusual to see them as only about 800 pairs stay to breed here, the majority of the wintering birds nest in Russia.
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