Spoonbills - Farlington Marsh 2024

Beautiful photo of a species I have dreamt of seeing wild for quite some time, and with the possibility of a visit to Farlington at some point there is certainly hope.

It was only talking with an RSPB official later in the day that I was shown just how valuable this shot was!

The Marsh was a pleasant place to spend a day; though a bit emptier than usual. In the official's words, the best time to go there is usually high tide; but today was exceptionally high tide. The first thing seen was a kestrel but it flew away whilst putting the lens together. It's a rather enclosed space - with many things behind fences. The difference between that and a bona-fide zoo then being that there's no guarantee as to what's inside the pen. Seen today aside of what I have mentioned were plenty of lovely Brant geese, oystercatcher, some other nice waterfowl, plenty of coots in one area.
My only grievance really was in regards to avocets who I had set out to see but had escaped the high tide.

Lovely birds must have been exciting to see them.

an article on the local wildlife trusts website about the threat to Farlington with the link to the environment agency survey that’s going on that could impact whether it is protected from erosion or not.

Farlington Marshes – An Uncertain Future? | Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust

not my local wildlife trust but I saw it highlighted recently in a feed - might be of interest. The survey ends this week.

What a coincidence! A couple of days ago, one morning at Slimbridge WWT I managed to spot an individual as well! This was the first time that had seen this species in the wild but annoyingly by the time i took out my camera it had flown off . This then happened about an hour later to a pair of Whooper Swans infuriatingly when I was watching some Waders.

@Dr. Loxodonta If you are minded to head over to WWT Welney there are some amazing Whooper swans there in numbers at the moment.