We started our visit to Blue House Farm on the seawall to the south of the reserve and, although some hours to the top of the tide, there was but little exposed mud.  Walking east to where the seawall bent north round an inlet we were rewarded with some sightings of waders including snipe and shelduck.  The blustery wind caused telescopes to waver and it was hard to focus to get clear identifications of some of the waders. The chatter of the Brent and Canada geese and the calls of the curlew and redshank were heard frequently and a gaggle of greylag geese flew over communicating with each other as they went – such evocative sounds.

The most interesting sighting of the day was on land where a kestrel hovered close by and seemed to follow us along the seawall.  Later, whilst in our last hide, we saw crows mobbing it and it flew away to the north.  Unfortunately for us there was groundwork in progress and a large mechanical excavator was scooping out a new ditch on the flat field area that separated us from the hides.  We were able to clamber over the mound of earth that had been dumped and crossed the ditch to the hides on newly constructed earth bridges.  Whilst in the first hide the kindly digger driver brought his machine along and with a few pats from the large bucket, flattened the mound so that we could cross back with ease.  We think that our low sightings were due to this disturbance but the works will benefit visitors in the wetter months as this area can become very sodden.  From our last hide we saw flocks of 200+ Canada geese and 50+ greylag geese grazing on the land.

Joined by three other members we ended the morning with lunch in the Ferry Boat Inn.

 Birds: Goldfinch, Sparrow, Blue Tit, Chaffinch, Starling, Skylark, Pied Wagtail, Collared Dove, Rook, Wood Pigeon, Kestrel, Lapwing (30), Mallard, Gadwall, Snipe, Redshank, Curlew, Little Grebe, Sanderling, Canada, Brent & Greylag Geese, Shelduck, Mute Swan, Black-headed Gull (Common Tern?)

Diane Caulkett