Green Sandpiper, 5 Snipe, Long-tailed Tits
A walk around the lake this morning in a fresh easterly breeze was fairly quiet with very few passerines to be seen. On the reserve were a few Teal and I stopped to film a particularly nice drake when I noticed a Green Sandpiper feeding on the grassy water's edge. I watched and filmed it for several minutes, struggling to keep the camera focused because of foliage in the foreground waving around in the wind. However I was able to get some footage.
It then began to rain so I retired to the hide where Kingfisher Pete and two other people were in, but hadn't seen the Kingfisher. A few Teal fed on the edge of the spit and there were half a dozen Tufted Ducks and a pair of Grebes nearby. A fairly large group of Long-tailed Tits moved through but I couldn't see anything else with them. After a while the rain eased slightly so I left the hide and went back to see if the Green Sandpiper was still present - it wasn't. There were a small group of Snipe (5 birds) on the right hand edge of the stony island though, so I filmed these briefly in the rain, which had picked up again.
I set off around the Lake again, hoping the rain would subside, but it got gradually heavier until by the time I reached home I was drenched and had seen very little else.