Trip out to Blacktoft

As no one else seems to want to go anywhere A couple of us decided to trip out to Blacktoft Sands on Saturday.
We had the usual Bacon & Egg butty at North Cave followed by a quick look round, nothing special to report there on the day, & then off to Blacktoft.
Near the car park there was a Cetti's Warbler in the reeds & a hopeful chap trying to photograph it, he was still there up to just before we left, hope he got a few shots! We heard it a few times, what a powerful call they have, but we needed to check out the rest of the site.
In Xerox there were a few people looking at a wader, it was far off & I needed a quick look in somebodies scope to ID it. I said maybe Greenshank & everybody decided against me & said it wasn't!!! So I decided if not Greenshank maybe a winter Godwit, Allan puzzled upon Winter Spotted Redshank.

Here's a record shot for reference:

Later Allan showed a Warden & they said it was a Greenshank! Thanks to those who convinced me I was wrong! I will maybe stick to my own instincts next time!

 

That didn't stop us getting stuck into the rest of the birds.

 

 Little Grebes were everywhere:

 

Quite a few Shoveler were around too

 

Avocets are trying to breed again

They take flight when the Marsh Harriers pass over. 

Quite a few Shelduck too.

& Teal.

We sat in Singleton for a while & observed Food passes & lots of long distance views of a pair of Montagu's Harriers, as well as the resident Marsh Harriers.

A few Marsh Harrier shots for you:

 

These still were not my Birds of the day -

A Spoonbill flyover was a cracking moment.

 

This was followed by a first for me - First time I ever had one of these close enough to Photograph.

 

A cracking Male Garganey came right over & paraded in front of us for a few seconds. I'm not a big Duck person but these are really striking.

 

We had all the usual suspects, Greylag, Swans, Warblers, Robins, Herons, etc. Considering the dull day it was this turned out to be a decent trip with some good birding.