The Safari lay in bed listen to the wind rushing through the tree tops outside the window as the fierst glimmers of dawn came through the curtains. Not what we wanted to hear, that south westerly was still blowing far too strong, nothing, or very little, would have left Scandinavia headed in our direction over night.
After a hearty breakfast we copped for Rooks, Stock Doves and Collared Doves in and around our temporary Base Camp for our Trip List, before setting off back to the point. Where to stop first? Being on the north side of the gas works we had to pass Vicar's Lane...and run the gauntlet of being snooped on by various police vehicles. Well it would rude not to stop wouldn't it...and there'd been a Firecrest there the previous morning. As soon as we got out of the car we bumped into a mobile flock of Long Tailed Tits, a good start...what would be with them??? The answer was lots of Blue Tits, several Great Tits, quite a few Goldcrests and some Chiffchaffs. It wasn't long before the first of the police vehicles came by to check us out, they soon saw we were harmless birders more interested in the bushes than the massive industrial complex behind us, although IH did point his bins in that direction when a couple of Meadow Pipits came in off the sea and landed on the top of the inner security fence...risky move...by IH not the Meadow Pipits. Along the lane we also had our first Blackbirds of the trip bar the one that flew in front of the car as dawn was breaking yesterday, there were about a dozen very mobile birds in the trees lining the lane. Also in there were several Robins and a few Wrens, again almost unbelievably our firsts of the trip. Overhead and around the corner bushes were small numbers of Chaffinches and Greenfinches and a Blackcap. We spotted a lovely Lesser Whitethroat but on closer inspection it turned out to be one of those caterpillar nests in the back of the bush...dohhh worrra numpty!
Failing to find anything out of the ordinary we hit the road down to the point stopping at the Canal Scrape first. As soon as we entered the hide we were put on to a very well hidden Snipe
There was a small patch of unobscured mud just to the left of this pi.c but our little friend simply refused to venture out on to it.
The Little Grebe was still on the pool, the Moorhen numbers had gone up by 50% since yesterday to three and we heard a Water Rail - yep it was quiet! Apart from the two noisy Cetti's Warblers either side of the path to the hide.
Exhausting the possiblities and looking at the weather wit hsome likely rain coming our way it was off to the seawatching hide, at least there we would be sheltered for an hour or so. It turned out to be a good move. Yesterday we'd been told of Bottlenose Dolphins passing by early morning, and they had done the same today. Would we or wouldn't we stike it lucky? A couple of Grey Seals weren't too far out.
But other than those there wasn't much to look at, The same(?) close Red Throated Divers as yesterday and several passing south mostly singles, a few Guillemots and fewer Razorbills bobbed about on the choppy sea while passing over them were more Sandwich and Common Terns. A birder came into the hide and told us we'd missed the best bird of the morning, an Osprey had flown south behind us half an hour earlier. Steadfastly we stared at the sea picking up a flock of 12 incoming Wigeon, a distant small flock of Common Scoters, a couple of Great Crested Grebes heading south together, and a few juvenile Gannets which were good to see given the appaling losses the species has suffered to Avian Flu over the last couple of breeding seasons. Small bird-wise nothing much at all was on the move a few Swallows tazzed past the window and a couple ofr more flocks of Goldfinches which we assumed were local birds doing a curcuit but given the Observatory log reported 2914 passing through for the day maybe they weren't locals after all!
While staring out to sea hoping for a big flock of ducks or perhaps a Great Northern Diver or a skua or two (of different species please) to come trundling by we thought we saw a 'wrong' big splash in the corner of our eye way out towards the turbines, we scanned the area for several minutes and saw nothing, so 'just' a weird wave-slap or something? No it was better than that - a few minutes later a large black shape made a big splash in our scope, not another Grey Seal this one had a dorsdal fin...a huge bull Bottlenose Dolphin! LCV was able to fire off a few shots as it powered its way hastily northwards.
The next thing that happened was even more bizarre, remember the mystery hirundine from yesterday evening - well news broke of a Nightjar up by the pub - SCRAMBLE - GO- GO- GO!!! Was the lad from yesterday right with his 'tentative' ID, a lucky guess, sold his soul, or just pure coincidence??? Anyway we legged it to the car threw the gear in a hurtled up the road...only to find it had gone between the finder finding it and going to get a radio to put the news out. In the grotty weather we throughth it wouldn't have gone far. Time to put LCV's rinky-dink Thermal Imaging gizmo to work again (especially as it hadn't been needed to find the Jack Snipe at the Canal Scrape). No joy from using either the bins nor the Thermal Imager, our bins found a late nesting Woodpigeon
and LCV's Thermal Imager fund a well secreted Robin in the 'Nightjar' bush and another nestingWoodpigeon over the road in the pub carpark trees.
With no sign of the rarity the small croud soon dispersed leaving a couple of hard core locals to try to find it and we'd hope they'd break positive news later.In the meantime we headed back to the wetlands for another look at the waders and waterfowl. The sleepy American Wigeon was still there but no sign of the reported drake Mandadrin. Still plenty of Mediterranean Gulls loafing about but there were fewer waders than our previous visit as the tide was out so the mudflats were open for business. We did get good views of Bar tailed Godwits, feeding with a single Black Tailed Godwit though.
It was then someone came into the hide and asked if 'those' Glossy Ibis had landed here...heads shook all round no-one had seen them, then we leaned out of the window a little and looked further to the right and lo and behold there was one at the end of the unseen from where we were sat, others in the hide wouldn't have seen it either as there was a bund of grass in the way. "You mean like this one" we said. the hide's side windows were immediatly opened and there was a bit of a scrum to get the best position.
"There should be three" was heard and a few moments later the other two stalked into view. Something spooked them and they took to the air but only for a fly round the pool landing shortly after in a much better place for all to enjoy them.
After a few minutes preening they were in the air again and this time continued their journey to where-ever. The question remains, was yesterday's singleton one of these three or were these new birds.
We moved on to the big Beacon Pond over the back where there was still no sign of the Mandarin, a 'Murder of (Carrion) Crows' kept IH amused and the three of us each managed a maximum count of 13 Little Grebes.
The birder stood next to us picked out the American Wigeon and this time it was actively feeding on submerged waterweed not snoozing as it does on th wetland pool. It moved around with a small pack of Wigeon eventually coming reasonably close on this large lake. 
Best of the rest wered a couple of Gadwall, a few Grey and Ringed Plovers, several Dunlin a Cormorant and a few Mute Swans. The adjacent rough field held a family of Stonechats as we wandered back to the wetland hide. A Buzzard popped up from behind the bank to our left, the first of the trip, the gull roost held even more Mediterranean Gulls but the oft reported at mid-day Caspian Gull failed to put in an appearance for us despite extensive searching through the larger gulls.
With it being quiet we didn't stay long but changed tthings up a bit with a drive up the road to look in the fields. Sometimes the Golden Plover flock hangs out here and at the mo there is an American Golden Plover with them, usually they are far to far out on the mudflats to stand a chance of picking it out. They weren't in the fields though, probably because the mudflats were available. There were a handful of Mallards the usual 'Serengeti's' worth of Roe Deer and two big flocks of geese, one fresh in Pink Footed Geese the other presumably resident Grey Lag Geese with a handful of Canada Geese thrown in for good measure.
Next up it was down to the seawatching hide to get out of the still strong wind. While passing the little pond in the village LCV ground the car to a halt saying theres's a Sparrowhawk in there. A few yards reverse and sure enough there was a Sparrowhawk sitting low down on a branch over the water. A good spot from the driver's seat.
The sea was quiet, as is often the case in the afternoon. However there were bits n bobs of interest. An unusually pale headed skua with hefty white wing flashes came past close in that caused a bit of exitement. IH called Arctic Skua, we though Great Skua but photos proved IH to be right. Deffo an odd looking individual and worthy of a second look and a check. Common Terns passed southwrds in dribs n drabs, while further out a few adult Gannets, mostly heading north, were good to see. A Heron flapped lazily in-off, we don't normally think of Herons as being migratory so where had this one set off from? A much more typical migrant heading towards us from well out was a single Redshank, as were three then five Teal. Another unexpected sighting was of half a dozen swimmers, all but one brave lad wet-suited up.
two or three Grey Seals were present, they can be hard to count as they move a fair way under water, was the one that was over there the same as the one that's popped its head up over here? Without a good look at their patterns it can be hard to know just how many you're seeing. Small flocks of Common Scoters moved about in the distance and a single Feral Pigeon came in-off - a genuine migrant or a lost/slow Racing Pigeon??? An Oystercatcher flew past which was bizarrely the first of the trip, normally they hit the notebook within the first hour or so of arriving.
It was now late and time for the beer n some grub.
After last night's mammal-fest on the drive back to our digs the theme continued when a Short Tailed Vole scurried across the road in the beam of our headlights. It would be safe tonight as we saw no Barn Owls again, the strong wing keeping them tucked up in their barns.
Where to next? Would the wind drop and the migrants arrive on our third day?
In the meantime let us know who's lurking furtively round ponds in your outback.
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