Saturday, 27 September 2014

Spotted Crakes

More crakes this morning. The water by the little dam/weir held an adult and two juvenile Water Rails and two fine Spotted Crakes. This one approached to c. two metres! They seem to be very sensitive to sound (a distant ATV scared them out of view) but if you are quiet and still they'll treat you as part of the scenery.


Great to see Bluethroats again - there were several hopping around the reeds with the Cetti's and Reed Warblers. Still impressive numbers of Red-backed Shrikes too.

Pallid and Marsh Harriers, Osprey and Lesser Spotted Eagles were the more interesting of the raptors. So nice to get a perched view of an LSE, especially when it shows off its nape patch so well.

(lucky moment - 100x, no cropping)

Addendum: I'm pretty sure the eagle I posted on the 24th was a Lesser Spotted, not a Steppe and I've corrected the text accordingly.


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