I made the journey from with my long time friend John and we arrived at the reserve at 1.45pm and made straight for the hide where we spent the next two and a quarter hours searching in vain for the Baikal Teal. So there was a modicum of disappointment having dipped the target bird, yes, but we actually had a pretty decent afternoon of birding.
A pair of Bearded Tits put on a wonderful show just outside the hide and I actually managed to get some recognisable photos, it was just a shame that pretty much every time I pressed the button the male turned his head away from me!
Believe it or not, these were the first Bearded Tits I'd seen for about three years! A Cetti's Warbler also showed occasionally in the same patch of reeds with a Stonechat and Reed Bunting adding to the interest.
At the back of the first scrape a Great White Egret was present and a Marsh Harrier made occasional passes over, but didn't really flush the hidden teal flock, which was a bit of a shame.
We did have a bit of excitement just afternoon 2pm as a Glossy Ibis flew in from behind the hide and after a little fly around settled for a few seconds before disappearing again. A Peregrine was on one of the pylons, a Kestrel flew through, a small gaggle of Greylag Geese were seen in flight at the back of the reserve and a massive flock of Golden Plover took to the air at one point.
I did nip out of the hide to look at a Water Rail that showed briefly in the reeds but by doing so I missed a male Hen Harrier, however, luck was with me on this one as after about ten minutes I relocated it flying away from us.
We had to head back at 4pm and on the drive back to Sherborne we added Barn Owl to the list of what was a very decent afternoon, shame about the rare teal though!
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