Spoonbill

Cool, cloudy, showery - A much chillier feel to the weather this morning once the rain band had rattled through from the north-west. At Lade (a first for me) a not unexpected sighting of a Spoonbill on one of the distant islands on south lake along with five Great White Egrets, 10 Little Egrets and eight Grey Herons; I`ve had flyover Spoonies before here. Watched a life and death struggle as a Merlin chased a Skylark (unsuccessfully) high over the shingle ridges. 

                                 Distant Spoonbill, Lade south

                                  Grey Plovers, Burrowes

Around the bird reserve six Grey Plovers and a Dunlin were in front of Firth while a shoal of fish attracted 100 Cormorants, 10 Great White and 15 Little Egrets and 10 Grey Herons to feed. On Boulderwall fields two Glossy Ibis and eight Cattle Egrets. From Hanson hide another Merlin, a Snipe, a Little Stint and hundreds of gulls, and from where the Long-tailed Duck was seen during the afternoon.