Ham Wall RSPB - Sun 22 May

I was on call all weekend so it somewhat limits what I can do and where I can go, so imagine my frustration when I got a text message mid-afternoon telling me that a female Red-footed Falcon was showing really well at Ham Wall. I couldn't turn off the work phone until 6.00pm and it was then time for dinner and so I didn't get to leave the house until 6.45pm. A quick call to my mate Steve in Yeovil meant a slight diversion to pick him up and we arrived at the Ashcott Corner car park at around 7.30pm and were met by a couple of birders who had seen the falcon some fifteen minutes earlier.
We walked out to the first viewing platform at HamWall and were again told that the bird had been seen some twenty minutes ago, but despite giving it until 9.00pm we failed to relocate the Red-footed Falcon as it had presumably gone off to roost.
That being said we did have a pretty productive evening. At least six Bitterns were seen in flight, some affording prolonged flight views. A small party of six Shelduck flew over heading north and there were hundreds of Common Swifts overhead.
A drake Ring-necked Duck was some compensation for missing the Red-legged Falcon and it showed well on the pool behind the viewing platform with some Tufted Ducks. Despite the poor light and my somewhat limited photographic ability I still managed a record shot with my mobile phone:

Other birds of note included a drake Garganey, which spent most of its time asleep, a couple of Barn Owls hunting over the edge of the reedbeds in the distance, and a female Marsh Harrier. We did see a very brief Hobby which got us interested for a split second and all in all it was a pretty good evening, just a shame we missed the class act!