Brandon Marsh.

On Friday morning I thought I'd go over to Brandon Marsh as I hadn't been there for a while.I entered an empty Steetly hide just before 9.00AM with fingers crossed I might be able to point the camera at something decent.

I was in luck because I soon found six Green Sandpipers scattered around the muddy areas of the pond.

These soon decided to fly off in the direction of the river and the next hour produced nothing except a Common Buzzard that quickly flew past.

I then walked down the jungle path to the River Pool hide but there were only a few Mallards there so I quickly moved on.As I got to the end of the broadwalk to the River Pool hide I noticed the Willows and adjacent trees were very active with birds most of which were Chiffchaffs but then I saw a couple of other birds which much to my delight turned out to be one of my favourite birds.

I didn't expect to see any Spotted Flycatchers this year as their numbers had been drastically

reduced but I've been very lucky having seen them in five separate local locations and have seen at least twelve different birds including these two at Brandon.

I then went to the hide that's died (Teal Pool) and it was dead.The East Marsh hide was deserted and I could find nothing of interest to see on the islands.A visit to the Carlton hide was worth the effort but only because I had lunch there.There were no birds at all to see in my 45 minute stay but I did receive some interesting news whilst in there when a couple of friends had been able to get shots of a Marsh Harrier a few days earlier.

I then walked past the Wright hide and round past the golf course back to the centre but hardly saw anything at all.It was all very quiet.I did get a shot a what I think is a juvenile Chiffchaff but that was all.

To cheer myself up I thought I'd visit the cafe and have a chat with the pretty waitress but the cafe was closed ( a water leak).Knowing it wouldn't be my day I headed home.