RSPB Blacktoft sands

When we arrived at Blacktoft, we got out of the car and went to the visitor centre to ask if there was anything hanging around the area, the man said there was lots of Marsh harriers and three Bitterns were being seen quite regularly, we looked out the window were the visitor centre was and then we saw a beautiful Female Marsh harrier flying across the marsh! Lots of avocets were mobbing the Marsh harrier, while we were watching it I noticed something coming down a stream in front of the visitor centre it was a water vole. We watched the water vole for a while then decided to move on to some other hides.

When we reached one of the other hides, we sat and watched for a while and then we saw a few more marsh harriers come into view, there was four in total, while we were watching them lots of whitethroats, sedge warblers and reed warblers were singing in the reeds but they hardly ever came out, when I was watching a Marsh harrier through my Camera I noticed something fly past it in the back ground, when i got a good view of it, I noticed that it was a Bittern although it didn't stay long it was great to watch.

When we got to another hide there was loads of Avocets on an island in the middle of the lake along with a few Pochards and Cormorants also on one island there were lots of nesting black headed gulls. After a while I noticed something flying over the reed beds, it was another Bittern, this one stayed a bit longer so we could have a better view of it. While we were watching the Avocets we noticed that suddenly all the black headed gulls started to scatter and then we saw a Male Marsh Harrier come in and grab one of the black headed gull chicks, it took it round the back of the island and started eating it and then we saw another Marsh harrier coming in but this time it was a Female and this one just kept flying across the reeds at the back of the island. When the Male had finished it took off and flew away with the rest of its prey but the Female started to try get the chick of the Male and then the Male eventually dropped it and then flew away. It was amazing to watch.

 

We went to the hide were quite a few Spotted redshanks were been seen, on the lake there was once again tons of Avocets and also a few redshanks too and then we noticed a few waders right at the back of the lake, I looked through my Camera to see what they were and they were eight Spotted redshanks!

 

After that we decided to have one last quick look in the visitor centre for the water voles, after about 5mins we saw one of the young water voles swim past and then shortly after we saw the parent coming down the stream!