Birding,Beer & Skittles: Rain Nearly Stopped Play

A day off work today to go birding. Mondays are a good day for me to have off as my wife goes to the St Margarets Hospice Day Centre in Yeovil and I can relax for a bit.
I decided to go to Yarner Wood in Devon on probably the wettest day so far this year !
I arrived at the car park around 9am and was surprised to see a new hide overlooking the pond by the car park. As it was raining hard I decided to take advantage of its facilities for a while.
It wasn't long before I spied the local residents !

Wood Duck & Mandarin Duck

Mandarin Duck

Wood Duck

The Mandarins are classed as category C birds which means that although they have been introduced to Britain they now have a self sustaining population. The Wood Duck however is somewhat dubious as it is kept in wildfowl collections and is known as an escape ! Nice to see all the same.
The feeders were busy with a variety of drenched Finches and Tit's.

Coal Tit

Nuthatch

Siskins

A walk around the woods produced many singing Wood Warblers and Pied Flycatchers although it took me two hours to actually see one. I did venture up to Trendlebeare Down in the hope of seeing Tree Pipit but the weather was making sure everything was under cover. As I was making my way back to the car park though I did catch the briefest Common Redstart song.
I now (after checking the BBC weather website) decided to head up to the Somerset Levels where it was not raining quite so hard.
I arrived at Ashcott Corner around 1.30pm and walked out to Meare Heath. I was hoping to catch up with the two Long Billed Dowitchers that had been there for several weeks. I was not disappointed as they were feeding with a large group of Black Tailed Godwits.


Long Billed Dowitchers

I walked on out to Noah's Lake hide and settled down, glad to be out of the rain for a while. There were many Hirundines flying over the lake, mostly Swallows and Sand Martin's but with a few House Martin's as well. Also there were a few Common Terns.