10th May: Turnstone

The last couple of days have been a bit blustery and showery which hasn't made birding all that easy, the Avalon Marshes being so exposed as they are. 

Bittern monitoring produced a few sightings before the rain set in, over the next few months we should be able to build up a clear picture of just how many Bitterns we have down here. Whatever the final score, it's sure that it will be a significant proportion of the British population.

Bittern on a feeding flight

 Other resident birds are cracking on with their breeding seasons too:

Great-crested Grebe chicks being fed. The first of the year

And migrants of all varieties are passing through still:

Hobby

Shelduck

And the highlight of the last few days, was a Turnstone flying West over Ham Wall RSPB this morning. Turnstone is a very unusual bird so far inland and away from suitable habitat, and the first i've ever seen away from a coastline. This sighting shows again just how good this area is at pulling in un-expected birds, what else have we got to come....
Unfortunately it was so fast and distant that I couldn't get a photograph worth sharing.

Ha, who am I kidding, i've never let a total lack of quality prevent me from posting a photo before, so here's a collection of pixels that to an imaginative mind could possibly resemble a portrayal of a Turnstone!