Saturday, February 13, 2010

Colourful Visitor

Nothing of any great significance, bar one, to report in the last week at Brandon personally, although with my trip to Rutland Water last Sunday I missed 3 drake Pintail, apparently looking stunning, and a female on East Marsh Pool.

The bar one I mentioned above came on Thursday morning when just after arriving at around daybreak a drake Mandarin Duck, (library picture), suddenly appeared with 2 Mallard as company as we walked past Grebe Pool. The bird stayed on site until around 10am when it was reported to have flown off towards the River Avon.

This mornings visit was a bitterly cold one with few highlights, although a female Muntjac Deer on Wigeon Bank was nice to see and a rare visitor to Brandon, a first year Great Black Backed Gull on East Marsh Pool, plus another great count of Bullfinch (12). With the sluices still open on East Marsh Pool the Islands are beginning to show well and so too is the Flag Iris. It's also worth mentioning to anyone visiting over the coming weeks to keep a look out for Oystercatcher and Ringed Plover which normally arrive around this time at Brandon. In fact it's a warming thought to think that in only 4 more weeks we'll be keeping an eye out too for early arrivals of Sand Martin!