A Perch for a Gull

I did not arrive on site until lunchtime today as I had to attend a meeting in the morning. I had a quick look from the Tern hide when I arrived and The great white egret was standing on the north shore of the lake. In addition there were probably over 30 grey heron and at least 2 little egret. Later I was briefly in the Goosander hide where 3 goosander were the first for some time, probably locally bred birds from the valley and all juveniles as far as I could see. Other birds on Ibsley Water today included a bar-headed goose with the hundreds of greylag, 7 Egyptian geese and a peregrine.

Elsewhere on the reserve Jim and Michelle found yet another goat moth larva and a southern hawker dragonfly flew into the Centre lobby, I eventually caught it in the kitchen! When I went to lock up the Ivy North hide the roe deer were just to the east of the hide in the late afternoon sunshine and I managed to get one passable picture, although there was a little vegetation in the way.
Finally I went to lock up the Tern hide, the only extra bird I saw was a common sandpiper, but there was a cormorant struggling with a fish. A closer look showed it was a good sized perch, in fact so large was it that although it tried for something over ten minutes the bird could not swallow it, eventually the fish was abandoned and an adult great black-backed gull pulled it out of the water and eat a good part of it.