counting coots

Some of the more long standing, avid, or perhaps even dedicated readers of this blog might, perchance, remember me moaning (no shit, honestly) about the lack of irruptives in my life this winter and I presented to you the waxwing bush...

http://countingcoots.blogspot.com/2009/01/irruptives.html (don't know how to do the fancy linking thing yet)

... which still has a berry on it, hope is not lost.

Well today I offer you another stunning area of habitat in my humble patch. Considering the inner city location of my patch this large, nay vast, area of reedbed is quite remarkable, and an asset to the local biodiversity - rivalling anything that the wonders of Norfolk can provide.

It is of course not yet the home to a resident population of Bearded Tits (yes, Tits - not bearded bloody reedlings), but I have great hopes for it. There is enough space for a booming bittern to hide itself, and there are plenty of rats here, so a Short Eared Owl may pass by just after the Marsh Harrier worries the Corncrake. If you look hard at the picture you can see, through the dense stems, the resident ducks, and it has even held a couple of Phylloscopus in the winter months.

Well what did you expect?