A very nice walk and have I mentioned sand martins

So there I was this morning bright and early walking that I am surveying for the RSPB as one of two volunteers assigned to the site just in the Fens.

On this farm they grow an enormous amount of salad crops as well as your usual wheat, potatoes and sugar beet. They have recently flooded a 20ish hectares section of the farm to control nematodes and now, well its looking good and the birds have found it, waders, wildfowl and sand martins.

The land will be flooded for another couple of months now and hopefully it should prove very attractive to passing waders and ducks as the seasons change.

This morning it was great Skylark, Yellow Wagtail and Corn Bunting plus 60odd Lapwing, then we get to the other two really nice sightings, a lovely family party of 5 Little Grebe the adults calling away to keep the group together and did I mention Sand Martins 200 plus. There they were flying around one of the flooded fields, a swirling mass of them, they looked great from a distance but close up, they were flying about less than a metre from our faces before settling in the redshank and fathen growing on the spoil banks. Absolutely lovely to see and felt very privileged to be so close to them.

I know this picture isn't great but it does give an idea of the birds, the picture in my mind though is perfect.