If you don't try, you'll never know

I definitely got a lesson in how this saying can apply to bird watching today.

The day started with another ringing session at Belvide with Brewood Ringers.  Sadly it wasn't as productive as the previous session, although there was a noticeable arrival of goldcrests to the site, of which 3 were caught.  Along with another 20+ meadow pipits the only other species of interest were chiffchaff, with 9 caught.

There seemed to be a distinct lack of birds around, so reluctantly I called in at Doxey Marshes on my way home.  I wasn't hopeful, I told myself there'd be nothing to see, but I was already out I couldn't face spending the rest of the day indoors.  Little did I know that this would be a great decision.

Whilst playing another round of passerine peak-a-boo (if you have no idea what I mean by this, see an earlier post), a bird of prey caught my eye on the other side of the hedge.  Instantly it looked different from the initially expected buzzard.  Marsh harrier!  A female type was quartering the grassland near the river before flying off up the valley and out of sight, being pursued by a few black-headed gulls.  The bird reappeared briefly some half an hour later, but again flew out of sight.

Cue terrible photo taken hastily through binoculars...

As I headed around the circular walk, a flock of lapwing flew up from the scrape and began circling.  Three ruff were flying around too, a great treat and sadly a sometimes less than annual species on the reserve, at least from the reports we get anyway.  Another bird then caught my eye, a small wader was in amongst them, a very small wader.  I am still trying to decide what that bird was, possibly a stint?  It looked too small for a dunlin.  In my attempts to find out just what the bird was I found myself crawling through the field towards the edge of the scrape.  Yes, crawling...

The scrape was a feast of birds.  Around 200 lapwing sat around the water's edge whilst at least a dozen snipe could be easily seen feeding.  A few teal and mallard drifted back and forth, dabbling away.  Then two of the ruff appeared from behind a clump of rushes and eventually passed right by me just 20ft away.  A dunlin then appeared from behind the lapwing, and two green sandpipers were  busy chasing each other around the uncut patches of vegetation.

Along with another good helping of chiffchaff, a male blackcap, 15 wigeon and what seemed like a swarm of migrant hawker dragonflies, all in all it turned out to be a great day on the reserve.  Just goes to show that if you don't try, you'll never know...