Swamp Chicken - 4.9.16

Swampy!

It'd been around a month since the Swamphen had vanished from Minsmere and the ribbing from my mates had almost ceased but then like a bolt out of the blue (or should I say purple) the Mega alert went off and amazingly it'd been re-found in Lincolnshire! The weekend had arrived and as I had Tom a McDonalds breakfast was used as bribery to drag him away from his PS4! After 3 hours or so we arrived in the village of Alkborough and immediately saw a woman taking a Shetland pony for a walk! I found the car park and we walked off towards the flats. Just as we reached the top of the stairs a Lancaster Bomber flew low over us and straight over the reserve! I was now expecting a very long wait for it to re-appear but thankfully we only had to wait 5 minutes before the bright bluey-purple and red chicken walked into view. There it was my first ever WESTERN PURPLE SWAMPHEN! We watched as it carefully pulled out a root of a reed and delicately hold it in its massive feet to eat it. I got a record shot of it and sent it to my mates telling them they can now shut it as I've seen it! The reserve looked very impressive but as I had Tom with me I couldn't go for a wander or he'd be moaning he was bored! But before we left I did see my biggest flock of Spoonbill with 10 birds present.