As there was a break in the persistent rain an hours visit to the main pit beckoned. Every where was squelchy after over 2" rain since the weekend. The sun briefly shone lighting up the abundent ground cover of Colt's Foot this year. It is one of our earliest wild flowers often showing up in Feb but by the end of March gives an explosion of sulpher yellow blooms. The blooms appear before the leaves above the scales of the flowering stems.
This is a great time of the year for getting relatively close to Meadow Pipits & Skylarks as they set up territories for breeding . The pheet notes of the pipit and warbling of the larks was a dominant feature of my meander. As can be seen from my photos they blend in so well with their surroundings when on the ground.
The main pit itself produced 12 Shelduck, 3 Oystercatchers, 2 Redshank, Little Grebe, 2 Shoveller, 5 Lapwing, 2 Great Black Backed Gulls and 1 Lesser Black Backed Gull being mobbed by Black Headed Gulls who odviously thought it was coming too close to their territory. A Little Egret flew across the pit but didn't land.
There were contractors on site while walking round fencing the perimeters which seems to be well advanced. I just made it back to the car before the heavens opened again.
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