When we started this whole thing we had an Avocet turn up.
Then after another day on the marsh another one arrived.
So we organised a big stomp and just before we started a Great White Egret flew over and circled us.
A few of us decided to go for a walk on a wet and freezing afternoon and spotted a big murmuration of starlings. We stomped the marsh again and a Green sandpiper popped in to check it out, followed by a female pintail both of which only turn up occasionally around here.
A Marsh harrier visited several times after our last stomp. A very rare bird for Berkshire.
Then on Sunday, the day of the magic, a Jack Snipe popped up, waved and promptly vanished into the marsh. It landed just a few feet away, on ground that we had stomped a month back.
The following morning a Marshian found 3 Great White egrets. By the time I woke up I had half a dozen missed messages. This was really great news! Marshian Observation at its best.
The day after that I had a fair bit of time during the day to enjoy the whole area, and I cut and planted a lot of willow stems alongside pathways. When I eventually arrived at the noticeboard by the marsh I was preoccupied with a willow tree, it may be one I planted earlier. And then a glance over the water and here slap bang in the middle of the marsh a pair of Garganey.
Even without binoculars they were obvious. Of course I had my binoculars with me and watched them for ages.
I alerted all those Marshians I know would like to know about them. It was a while before anyone turned up, and I spent ages watching them and looking at all the other birds. You never know what might be there if Garganey are there. They’re a migratory duck and very uncommon. They fell asleep in the edge of the marsh, so I pottered about taking more willow cuttings. One by one the Marshian ornithologists arrived. There’s a hilarious way of pointing out skulking ducks to someone. It goes like
“see the Heron?”
“Yep”
“Go right till you get to the pair of Shoveler”
“Yep”
“See the three floating Reedmace stems”
(in a million square meters of Reedmace)
“Yep”
“They’re behind it in that shadow”
“Got them”
And then a few minutes later the birds would move, someone else would arrive
And we’d do it all again.
Rural Reading 