A wet morning......

An early morning trip out this morning for a few hours,before the rain really came down properly,saw me visiting firstly South Ferriby and later Far-Ings at Barton.Highlights at the former included a big build up in the Avocet numbers to a guesstimate of between 700-800 birds.The reason i had to make do with a guess,was that the birds were tightly packed and too far away for my 27x eyepiece to accurately count them,but what a great sight they are.Some of the closer birds gave nice views with that distinct scything feeding action as they searched the mud for any tasty morsels,great stuff.Also nearby,10 Black-tailed Godwit swirled about with a flock of Dunlin and displaying Ringed Plover were watched with their little chests puffed out as they tried to impress their female companions and also feeling amorous were a pair of Lesser black-backed Gull.As i left it had just started to drizzle and i made the short journey to Far-Ings.As i got my gear out of the car it began to rain properly and i dashed to the hide.The best bird sighting here was sort of expected and was a single Bittern watched sat in the top of the reedbed across from Ness hide.It didn't stay put long,as the wind and rain got stronger and heavier and it flew into a concealed pool in the reedbed.I know we tend to take this bird for granted now locally,but they are a superb and special species still in my eyes.Other birds on Ness included a nice mixed flock of Shoveler and Gadwall,giving cracking views as they dabbled about in the heavy rain and a handfull of Goldeneye displayed and dived for food.A few nice sightings this morning,shame it was cut short by the expected rain.