Sunny Monday

Another fine, sunny, if cold day, with a brisk ENE wind, but very pleasant if you could find sunny shelter. When I opened up the Tern hide I saw two of the Black-necked Grebes, I suspect the other two were there somewhere, when I looked later I could not find any however. As well as the Black-necked there are several pairs of Great Crested Grebes and still lots, perhaps thirty or so, of Little Grebes on Ibsley Water. A couple of the Great Crested pairs have been displaying recently, collecting weed and "dancing" to one another. I have tried to get a picture of this but they are usually distant and the dance usually lasts only a short time. So you will have to settle for a picture of a Little Grebe as the best I could get.
There were still no sign of any Redpoll or Siskin about today, apart from one of the latter flying over. There are still some Brambling, but nothing like the numbers there were. The only other notable bird record I heard of today was of the Smew, which is still on Rockford Lake.

Hopefully we will complete work on the Sand Martin bank tomorrow, we will have something like three hundred nesting holes, so it will be interesting to see how many are used.