There were 7 Bewick's swan on Ibsley Water when I opened up the Tern hide this morning, at 07:55 they took off, a pair of adults went south towards Ringwood, the others headed north and then turned and dropped down to the meadows by Ibsley Bridge. The only other birds of note were a steady stream of departing goosander, mostly heading toward the Avon.
As it was Thursday it was volunteer day, twelve volunteers did two tasks today. One group started work on clearing out the sand martin holes prior to refilling with sand for the new season, the first returning sand martin will probably be here in eight weeks. The other cleared willows from the old silt pond beside the path to the Goosander hide, we are hoping to make a number of ponds here as part of the Million Ponds Project. Although the day started with light rain we had a dry time whilst working, only for the rain to start just as we stopped at 12:30, once again the luck of the Thursday volunteers held.
In the afternoon rain I was briefly over near Rockford Lake and there saw 2 smew, the immature drake and a duck. These two were later seen to fly onto Ibsley Water just before dusk. I understand that a bittern was seen today from Ivy North hide, but I did not hear any reports of the great white egret. I have to do a partial count of the lakes tomorrow so I might get a better idea of what is around, hopefully the rain will hold off.
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