07.45 To 14.30 Hours.

1 Female/Juvenile Merlin, 1 Female Marsh Harrier, 1 Adult Peregrine, 1 Female & 1 Unsexed Sparrow Hawk, 3 Common Buzzards, 1 Kingfisher, c100 Common Snipe, c300 Lapwing, 2 Black-Tailed Godwits, 2 Little Grebe, 2 Stonechats, c50 Fieldfare, 2 Ravens & 'Winter Duck' Species.

Small number of Golden Plover at Catcott Lows this afternoon.

Duck and Lapwing in good numbers, Snipe no.s well in excess of 150 only other waders seen were 14 Dunlin hiding among the Lapwing. Only raptor seen between 1130 and 1430 was 1 Buzzard, mind you it was a little damp! A single male Stonechat was near the pumphouse and a flock of 100+ Chaffinches were in the lane between Burtle and Catcott this morning together with a small flock (40) of Fiedfare and Redwings.

5 Golden Plover and 5 Dunlin present this (Tues).afternoon in bright sunshine! One adult female Marsh Harrier put up everything and showed 1000 Duck and several hundred Lapwing and Snipe.

Arrived early at Catcott very misty, large numbers of Duck ,Lapwing and Snipe.On to Greylake and was entertained by Stonechats that gave a great photo opportunity,Peregrine at some distance,Snipe about eight close to the hide,Wagtails two ,Kingfisher flew across the lake, Meadow Pipits,but not so many Ducks today perhaps they preferred Catcott. Stonchat photos on Website.

Today Thurs a.m 4 Blk Tld. G'Wits;5 Dunlin plus 100's of Snipe plus 1000+ Wintering Duck

A late p.m. visit Sat.16th revealed .7 Ruff and 6 Black Tld. G'Wits hiding among the Lapwing and Snipe on s raised strip of ground in the mid distance, could have been more of each but the visibility in mist was abysmal!

Still lots of Lapwing and Snipe.

A few Pintails in amongst all the other ducks.

A male Peregrine flew by putting everything up but wasn't hunting.

Despite a bitterly cold morning a rewarding visit to Greylake and Catcott, increased number of Ducks at Greylake a small number of Snipe close to the hide and a close fly pass by a Kingfisher ,at Catcott another Kingfisher with visits by a G-W-Egret ,Little Egret, a distant M Harrier. Pintail ,Snipe,Lapwing and many Ducks.

Despite a cool northerly and a dark sky this morning 5 hrs at the Lows produced 1000 or so wintering Duck, mostly Wigeon with a smattering of Shoveller, Teal, Pintail, Mallard and 5 Tufted Duck.
Waders present were 300 or so Lapwing; 3 Blk Tld. G'Wits; at least 4 Dunlin although several parties of two's and three's were seen flying around; There were only 2 Golden Plover in the morning but they were joined by a flock of between 50 and 60 in the early afternoon. A Single Ruff also appeared.
Raptors seen were a female Sparrowhawk; two Marsh Harriers (one of which was a male) that kept close company with each other in addition there was a third dark juv? with no discernable head marking seen at distance. A couple of Buzzards passed over.

And just before we left at 4, 5 marsh harriers were in the air together, beyond the back of the reserve towards Canada Farm.

A ring Tailed Hen Harrier appeared from S.E. corner of the reserve at 1335 flew across the back and then forward down the north side. it dropped decisively onto something and was on the ground out of sight for 20 mins. then got up and flew off eastward toward Shapwick Heath.. No sign of Bar Wits or Ruff today! Usual wintering Duck, the Snipe although still present in reasonable nos are not as plentiful as a week ago.The only other wading birds were a small no of Lapwing.

Spotted the same Hen Harrier just a few minutes earlier at Canada Farm lake. It crossed over into Catcott and a big cloud of ducks could be seen rising.

A late p.m. visit (1400-1550) . An unringed G.W. Egret was present when I arrived, it disappeared to the north after half an hour then re-appeared after 20 mins and was still there when I left, as were probably 2000+ Duck the majority of which were spending most of their time feeding to the right of the car park hide.They were forced to move by two visits by a Ring-Tailed Hen Harrier between 1420 and 1445 and by a swift pass of a Peregine just as I was leaving. It was quite dark by this time and totally overcast and unusually the 5-600 Lapwing present kept low sweeping backward and forward less than 20 ft. off the water, instead of towering up to get above the Peregrine as is their usual response to this predator. 3 Black Tld. G'wits were just visible among the 200+ Snipe seen.

One possible two Goldeneye, Catcott lows this morning small number of Meadow Pipits close by the hide .Marsh Harrier with the crippled leg flew pass the hide at Greylake ,the bird was the subject of discussion on this site I believe, seemed to be doing well. Some distant record photos if anyone is interested on my website.

Warned of its presence over the weekend by J.Gibbs esq. I saw my first Merlin of this winter on the Lows this morning, plus 2 Marsh Harriers, one of which was an all brown bird with no head marking, a male Peregrine. a large female Sparrow Hawk and a few Common Buzzards and at 1410 hrs Jim a ringtailed Hen Harrier passed by the hide fairly on the left flying directly down the centre of the reserve from west to east disappearing over Shapwick Heath. Usual good nos of Wigeon 1500+ and relatively small nos. of Shoveller,Teal with around 10 Pintail. Snipe (100 +) still around plus 2 Golden Plover and 2 Blk Tld. G'Wits. No real rainfall over the last couple of weeks means that the water level is around the ideal, still allowing a large 800+ Lapwing presence.

Despite the murky conditions this morning the day provided the usual 1500 wintering duck plus 1 flyover Ruff; 3 Blk. Tld. G'Wits;a max of 4 Golden Plover reduced to just 1 for the afternoon; 6 Dunlin and uncountable Snipe probably numbering several hundreds.Lapwings were a couple of hundred this a.m. but increased to many hundreds as the light faded this afternoon.
Raptors did'nt really appear until the weather brightened this afternoon during the course of which at least three different Marsh Harriers showed from time to time plus 1 Sparrow Hawk and a couple of Buzzards.
The highlight this afternoon was the re appearance of a Ring tailed Hen Harrier that flew round the reserve several times, very unusually sitting on the ground in full view for at least half an hour during breaks from its hunting flights.

The hen harrier, presumably the same bird observed by Alan, made a very low level attack, coming in across the Canada Lake reed beds and dropping to almost ground level, to surprise another large group of duck at the end of Higher Ropes Drove. It failed to make a kill and continued on over the field area beside the drove. There were a couple of hundred duck, mainly wigeon, grazing busily in the area with many starlings intermingled with them.