Glossy Ibis in flight.
I spent a couple of hours at Stodmarsh this morning in the hope of seeing the Glossy Ibis and to catch up with the recent sightings of Water Pipit from the Marsh hide , on my way around to the hide i bumped into the regular Stour Valley birders Martyn , Adam and Chidders , it was great to meet up with them as i often neglect local birding when i am of in pursuit of some far away rarity , they informed me that the Glossy Ibis was still on view from the Marsh hide and they had up to 16 Water Pipits whilst they were there , so after saying our goodbyes i headed off and once in the hide i did a very quick scan and couldn't find the Ibis , had it flown off or walked behind some reeds ??
Then all of a sudden it flew in from behind the hide and landed right in front of the hide only to be flushed by a very close Marsh Harrier , i did not get a photo as it was to quick but managed a flight record shot ( see above ) and i got a couple of the Marsh Harrier .
Marsh Harrier
I then checked out the pipits in flight which were spooked by the Harrier and counted at least 10 Water Pipits plus several Meadow pipits , eventually they all landed out of sight although later in the morning 3 Water Pipits flew out of the grass onto the mud but were abit distant to try even for a record shot , however the Glossy Ibis had re appeared at the back of the pool.
Glossy Ibis
This is a really smart bird with light buff speckling on the nape , it had a curious feeding motion in the way it constantly opened a shut its bill at a very fast rate , great bird to see .
Other birds of note were 3 Fieldfares , Common Snipe , Sparrowhawk and a fly over Siskin , there were several Cetti's sounding off here and there plus 3 Bearded Tits pinged their way across the reeds .
