In my blog post on Sunday, I mentioned that we had our first summer migrants of the year here on Friday, at least two garganeys. This inspired me to dig out the first arrival dates for each species from previous years, just to reacquaint myself with when to expect each species. I have attached the list to this blog post if you are interested.
Typically, shortly after I printed this list off and displayed it in the visitor centre, I went up to the Washland viewpoint to look for the drake garganey (which is still present but haven’t seen yet!) Although I didn’t see the garganey, I did hear a chiffchaff singing. We have had chiffchaffs wintering on the reserve and here are some pictures of one that was taken here over the weekend:
Image credits: David Mackey
Thank you very much to David for sharing these great images with us.
Although the bird that was singing may have been one of the overwintering birds, I am pretty sure that the one that I heard was a summer migrant as the males usually sing in order to announce their arrival on our fair shores.
Wherever it was a summer migrant or not doesn’t really matter, but it was great to hear nonetheless! It certainly made me look forward to all of the other summer migrants heading here arriving on the reserve. Now that is something to look forward to!