Snake in the Grass

Went to Tophill (again) today to try and catch up with the warden. Further failure but i did at least get hold of his mobile number. It would have been rude not to have a look about whilst I was there so I duly tried and failed on the falcon. A look at the hay bales produced a cracking dark Grass Snake, probably female as it was quite large. A reptile lifer it may be worth noting also - just Slow Worm, Sand Lizard and Smooth Snake to go! I imagine its the same individual as is on Marcus Conways blog. Birds of note were a single Buzzard, a group of 7 Goldeneye including 5 eclipse males and plenty of Pintail on D reservoir. A Kingfisher whizzed past my head in the middle of a wood which was a little incongruous and a Grey Wag went over calling. Hundreds of Redwing passed through the reserve at various altitudes from floor to bush to several hundred feet up. The Slav was still present but VERY active so was hard to pin down and somewhere in the region of 10,000 gulls roosted on D. Mostly Common but a few scandi looking LBB and a large scattering of BHGs and GBBGs.