Blashford
I arrived at this excellent site quite late (around 1510) as I’d earlier been at an orchestra rehearsal that didn’t happen in Charlton Marshall (I got the wrong date!). I parked in the car park by Tern Hide, where I found out from somebody where the Woodland hide was. The latter proved to give fantastically close views of masses of birds on feeders, including some very smart male Bramblings who were coming into breeding plumage, a few Siskins and Redpolls, a Marsh Tit, and also a Great Spotted Woodpecker and Nuthatch. Surprisingly all these were on seed feeders: they didn’t seem to have any peanuts.
I walked a bit further on to South Ivy hide, but there wasn’t much there, apart from a distant Jay. Further back at its counterpart North Ivy hide, there was a buzz since a Bittern was showing right in front, but unfortunately it was largely hidden. Luckily, somebody let me have a look through his scope before it vanished, although all I could see was its back!
I had a brief look at Tern hide before leaving, where I also picked up where to find the Bewick’s swans (I hadn’t realised any penetrated this far south!): there were 3 a bit further up at Ibsey bridge, and showed well (or would have done if I’d had a scope, as it was I had to make do with binocular views!)
