12th April 2014 - Topsham
For a change I spent a couple of hours looking over Bowling Green Marsh from the lane - much better views than from the hide. Plenty of Sand Martins passed through, with a few Swallows and my first House Martins of the year. The Great Crested Grebe - a rare bird this far up the estuary - was still hanging around and a small flock of Whimbrel flew over. As expected, the rather splendid breeding plumage Spotted Redshank dropped in with the other waders but was over 200m distant - this is nearly always the problem at BGM and one more reason to avoid the fairly pointless hide.
I looked in at Goosemoor on the way home and found a dozen or so Greenshanks and Black-tailed Godwits feeding close in by the main viewpoint. This place has real potential and, although I still don't like the 'letterboxes', at least the birds sometimes come very close. I have a suggestion though: I've noticed that birds are alarmed by movement behind the fence highlighted against the sky and, since not everyone is prepared to sneak in at a crouch, why not put up a screen behind the view holes to avoid silhouetting?
 |
| Greenshank - 12/4/2014 Topsham |
 |
| Greenshank - 12/4/2014 Topsham |
 |
| Greenshank - 12/4/2014 Topsham |
 |
| Greenshank - 12/4/2014 Topsham |
 |
| Greenshank - 12/4/2014 Topsham |
They're not brilliant but probably the best photos of Greenshanks I've ever managed - it's just a shame the Spotted Redshank wasn't with them.
No comments:
Post a Comment