More migrants have been arriving this week and the air is beginning to fill with a greater variety of song. Up on the Coal Tips trail it is impossible to miss the erratic ascent of skylarks and their high, trilling song.
Willow warbler, John Bridges (rspb-images.com)
Across the reserve there are blackcap and willow warblers singing, and chiffchaffs seem to be all over the place. There are smart male Reed buntings all over the Coal Tips trail and do keep an ear out for the booming of the bittern.
A big sighting this week was the report of a male ring ouzel in the field near the Moat. It passed through briefly and this picture was snapped:
Ring ouzel - taken by Peter Maugham
Elsewhere on the reserve a female Wheatear was spotted on the path near Big Hole, and a little-ringed plover was seen on The Cut yesterday. There have been a number of curlew sightings around the reserve, particularly down at Lin Dike. And out on Main Bay there have been 3 Sandwich terns and a little gull out on the islands.