Stuff from the South side

The safari had another trip over the river today. But before we crack on with the details here's a pic of Bloomfield Road. We normally don't get this view because we're usually halfway up the righthand terrace. The three yellow jersey'd bods in the foreground are the cheats, particularly the old gimmer with the bald head nearest the camera (he was even older than me!) who couldn't keep up with play and never saw a dozen or more offsides! Hard enough playing 11 good players without having to play against two officials too. Lets hope we steam-roller Sheffield Wednesday away on Tuesday night.

Continuing our North side theme for a minute, we found this broken piece of sign on the marshes by the car park which has been smashed by numpties and thrown in the sea. Eventually it washed up on the South side. It refers to the 'Birth of Venus' Illuminations tableau by TV celebrity artiste Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen. Wonder if my bosses want it back?
On to the real stuff. We hit the marsh road and looked for the Bittern but no luck this week, although it's still about. Two Merlins sat up nicely on posts as did two Kestrels. Sackfuls of Little Egrets but no Great White Egret. We went into the hide and had a chat with the Warden who put us on to a Brent Goose (Thanks GC) whilst we were nicely on a Barnacle Goose (103) nestling in a large flock of Pink Footed Geese. Three Brown Hares were a mammal tick for the year. Lots of commoner ducks and waders out there too.
After that we headed of to the Marine Lake and driving past we saw this...A very strange Red Crested Pochard but can we tick it...Possibly not but this one is a much better candidate.The latter appeared during the cold spell after an influx from the contintent...not sure about the plae one, part of the same or from somewhere a lot nearer? 104 now bagged.
Look closely at the Coot's head, weird or what!
Several gulls were hanging around waiting for the copious amounts bread the loving public have been chucking at the Mute Swans. This Black Headed Gull is still in full winter plumage.The safari loves immature gulls, like this 1st winter Herring Gull.

After our family Sunday do we had a qick look on the beach and bumped in to another mammal tick - a Stoat. We gave about 2000 gulls on the beach a good grilling but nothing stood out as being different...no Twite there today again, might have to wait 'til next autumn for them now.

Where to next? Back to the Patches...a somewhat scary week coming up...more later.

In the meantime let us know what yuo seen over the river in your outback.