Tonight we ventured out for our third time this autumn to try and see if any Woodcock had arrived back on the south coast. We looked at several fields around the Hartland area and managed to log c15 Woodcock in the end, which was great for early November. With the ‘Woodcock Moon’ occurring on Nov 23^rd we expect another big arrival of birds from Russia and Eastern Europe then. We also managed to catch one at Arne Farm, which was actually a re-catch of a bird that we had originally ringed on 21/12/16 which is great news and proves winter site fidelity at Arne Farm for Woodcock for the first time.  This morning a single Cattle Egret flew over the Stoborough causeway again heading west up the Frome Valley…where have the other 20 gone? At Morden Bog it was a grey day mostly because an adult male Hen Harrier was seen briefly, as was the Great Grey Shrike. At Holton Pools, the high tide again forced lots of birds to use the exposed banks of the scrapes and saw Curlew, Black-tailed Godwit and Redshank out in front of the hide along with 2 fly by Marsh Harrier and a Water Pipit and Green Sandpiper later in the day when the tide receded.

Woodcock – Arne Farm – Paul Morton