My only visit of the weekend to the Meadow was on Sunday evening when the sun finally broke out after yet another showery day. Fortunately I happened to choose just the right time to visit because as I made my way along the grass between the river and the floods I saw what turned out to be a 1st winter SPOONBILL fly in and land in the North Channel before immediately starting to feed actively. I quickly took some record shot video footage before putting the news out. No sooner had I done this then all the gulls and also the Spoonbill took to the air, I think it was a helium party balloon coming in to land that spooked them all. The Spoonbill flew off south roughly following the line of the river, sadly having spent less than five minutes on the floods. This species is basically pretty much annual on the Meadow now - I think that there's only been one year in the last six when we've not had one (counting the "possibles" last year as a sighting). Let's hope that this bird comes back to savour the delights of the Meadow for a bit longer in the next few days.
A video grab of this evening's Spoonbill - a shame it didn't stick around for longer
The only other birds of note were the BLACK-TAILED GODWIT still and the first two SWIFTS of the year in amongst the Swallows and House Martins.
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