Spoonless.

Not sure if my glass is half full or half empty but I do know my spoon was empty today after visiting pit 60 hoping to catch the four Spoonbills that TE had reported. Apparently they moved on quite soon after he had found them but all was not lost with the long staying Great White Egret showing well but quite distant in the rather murky weather conditions making photographs mediocre. Other compensations were Green and Common Sandpiper and a rather guttural Raven heard as I walked down to the hide. Some ten minutes before I left JH entered the hide and his company also added to a most pleasant two and a half hours spent looking for the "Spoons".
The Feather.

Darting Around.

A trip just to the east of White Horse Hill and later to Baulking Fullers Earth Pit gave me sightings of two Grey Partridge about half a mile from the ridgeway and later a nice covey of eight near the pit where a Common Darter gave me photos in spite of a very strong wind as it had found a sheltered spot protected by a strip of woodland.
The Feather.

Some you Whin and some you lose.

Walked from Kingston Lisle to Wescot looking for a flock of some twenty fledged Mistle Thrushes  that had been reported recently, they were not around so that was a bit of a loss as they would have been the focus of my next Oxford Times article that is due to be published soon nevertheless I felt a winner as the Whinchat that appeared on a fence post is a good bird for me , in that my usual haunts tend to be not the recognised birding hotspots also seen were one Wheatear, forty Swallows , a few House Martin, two Kestrels and in excess of one hundred and twenty Lapwing.
The Feather.