Sunday 17 January 2016

A MORNING VISIT TO ICE STATION MARSH LANE.


On Friday morning having layered up to beat the cold I set off just before 10.00 AM to Marsh Lane however my journey there came to a dramatic end after only 50 metres down my own road.A jolt from the back of the car had me pulling over to discover one of the back tyres was as flat as a pancake.

I then drove very slowly to Plumes the local tyre place luckily only half a mile away where they pulled out a piece of metal out of the tyre.It was 120mm long and 5mm diameter.How on earth I didn't just drive over it I have no idea.The tyre was ruined of course.Less than an hour later I was back home sulking and £110 worse off.Not my best day's birding ! !

Saturday morning layered up again I had better luck and got to Marsh Lane arriving not long after 10.00 AM.It was bright but bitterly cold.Most of the CP pool was frozen over and the only bird of note that I could find was a Herring Gull although a couple of Goosanders and a Raven did fly over.

The path down to the oak hide was frozen and very tricky to negotiate without falling.When I entered the oak hide there were a few birders there all looking at a couple of Jack Snipes in the marsh.As usual they were well hidden and asleep and to make things harder to spot them there were 85+ Common Snipe also in the marsh.

Nearly an hour later when nearly everyone  had given up and the cold had penetrated my thermals one of the Jack Snipes woke up but after only moving barely a metre it flew off.Lots of heavy duty swearing ensued but me and the other birder still there did manage a few shots.  







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