Meeting and greeting...

What a great day yesterday: meeting and greeting visitors at Blacktoft Sands. From the moment I arrived at the reception hide, the lagoon was alive with birds: ruff, wood sandpiper, green sandpiper, common sandpiper, snipe, dunlin, greenshank, oystercatcher, spotted redshank, curlew, lapwing and black tailed godwit. Water rails, little egrets, bearded tits, reed buntings and a bittern made an appearance in the reedbeds, and a couple of spoonbills flew overhead (though, strangely, I didn’t see a marsh harrier all day).

Visitor numbers were bouyant too, following a write-up of the reserve in the RSPB magazine. I have to differentiate, right away, between the experienced birders and those who are new to the hobby. It’s fun to point out a few birds from the reception hide to visitors who say they can recognise a coot and a moorhen… but not much else. However, pointing out a greenshank to a twitcher would produce nothing but a withering stare.

Licensed yesterday: Pentre Ifan, a neolithic dolmen in Pembrokeshire...

It's always a pleasant surprise to see a pic of mine in print or pixels. I found another shot from Wales in the Guardian...