Spring mist

I arrived at the reserve at 06.30 this morning to attend to a few things and found it enveloped in thick mist and heavy dew and despite a warm sun beaming down it had the typical look of an early September morning. Sedge Warblers sang from just about every reed bed and through the mist could be heard a whole cacophony of Lapwing, Redshank, Oystercatcher and geese calls but I couldn't see them. This was the view of the barn as I approached it down the track this morning, have a look at some of the misty shots that follow.








This was the Tower Hide as I arrived at it, clearly not going to be of much use for birdwatching.


And yet, literally ten minutes later, the sun had done its work and the mist had burnt back.


Also, out of the mist, appeared this pair of Avocets on The Flood. Double click on the photo to get a better look at them.


Mink have never been seen on the reserve to my knowledge but we thought that we'd put this mink trap out to test the waters so to speak, and to see if there were any there to catch. Presumably the same people that defended the right of crows and magpies to eat as many Lapwing and Coot's eggs that they could find, would also defend the right of mink to eat the few Water Voles that we still have but the reserve favours the voles I'm afraid.