As I walked down to the Corse I was greeted by a superb adult male Hen Harrier which flew past and disappeared in the direction of the ranges. It reappeared about 45 mins later on the south side of the Corse flying quite rapidly over the grass flushing Snipe and Pipits.
There were two Marsh Harriers over the reedbed - the adult female which has been present for some time and another less well marked imm/female type. A Peregrine passed over and duffed up the female Marsh Harrier briefly.
On the water in front of the reeds there were two Whooper Swans which flew off around 4:15 p.m. calling (Whooping) as they went. As they departed the Starlings started to come in in force with huge waves streaming low over the reeds from the east. As Richard Ellis says they turned large areas of grass and the bushes black - top pic. I am hopeless at estimating such large numbers but 20,000 would seem to be very much a minimum. The lower pic above is of just a part of the group of Starlings which lingered feeding around the cattle on the south side of the Corse before joining the roost on the North side around 4:25 p.m. This group was tiny compared to the main roost