Frosty Lapwing
5th January 2010, TuesdayWith an "easy" Bittern in prospect I got to the Castle Water hide at dawn and despite there being no Bittern there was a lot to see. 300 Lapwing roosting on the ice, some showing frost on the feathers!
Looking closer…
there were other waders in the group, superficially like Redshank, but more scaly backs and white collars - they were 42 Ruff.
90% of the water on the pits was frozen, but large numbers of wildlfowl had kept some areas free and these were crammed full of Wigeon, Teal, Gadwall, Mallard and Coot…
Walking home I spotted some movement in the reeds and out walked a Fox on to the ice.
Later, as I walked along the footpath beside the Long Pit I saw a Bittern on the ice, then another flew by and as I scanned the reedy margins there were 4 on view (at the same time as Sam saw 2 back at Castle Water!
