Distant views

The lure of the possibility of a close a Bittern from the hide at the Restharrow Scrape at Sandwich was too much to resist.

Unfortunately the birds didn't cooperate, either having left the area overnight or remaining stubbornly hidden in the ditch behind the small reed bed. The only movement I saw in the reeds was this Robin, beautiful, but not what I was looking for.

While scanning the area of marshes from near the Chequers Pub I came across the Pink-footed Goose that's been around for a while. It was reasonably close, and after a while put it's head up. Nearby a female/immature Marsh Harrier flew through, and judging by the panicking Teal, Wigeon and Mallards in the air it flew right over the scrape where I'd been sitting a few minutes earlier. c'est la vie.

Steve Ray got some better pictures of this bird yesterday (here) While I was in the hide I met Steve and we went along to the area where the Goose was and a long last I got some views of the Great White Egret my further back towards the railway. Although it was too distant for photos it wasn't too bad through the scope and was at least considerate enough the stay in view and out of the ditches for a decent amount of time. It even had a little fly (about ten yards).

The fields were packed with Thrushes, mainly Fieldfares and Redwings, Lapwings and quite good numbers of Curlews.

I've tried to adjust my Dad's old barometer and it seems to be pretty much in tune with the pressure give out hourly from the Met Office weather station at Langdon Bay. The only problem is, of course, I have to covert from inches of mercury to Millibars. This evening it was 29.88 inches and rising that's 1012 millibars. AT west Langdon at 9 p.m. it was 1013 millibars. Since then it's gone up 2 millibars, so it may be we're in for some improvement tomorrow, perhaps I should feel the seaweed?