After the beautiful weather we have been experiencing recently, it seems that winter is back today with gale force winds, near freezing temperatures and heavy rain and sleet - not so much April showers, but April downpours! However, despite the poor weather, the birds weren’t deterred yesterday morning as volunteer Sarah Bird and myself made our way around the reserve early morning conducting a breeding bird survey.
Numbers of migrant warblers are steadily increasing, with my first blackcaps and willow warblers of the year singing away from the woodland, hedgerow and scrub around Phase 1. We recorded 3 blackcaps and 3 willow warblers throughout the reserve, along with 9 chiffchaffs and 2 Cetti’s warblers. And do keep an ear open in the next month or so, as we should expect to be hearing plenty more migrant warblers arriving on site including sedge and reed warblers, whitethroats and lesser whitethroats, grasshopper warblers and garden warblers.
Waders are still plentiful on site too, with redshank, lapwing and oystercatcher calling away in complete darkness at 05.15 and ringed plover, little ringed plover and green sandpiper all making an appearance later on in the day.
It was a good morning for birds of prey and owls too, with a fantastic sighting of a tawny owl by Sarah at dawn, buzzards overhead, a hunting kestrel by the processing plant and a beautiful female sparrowhawk drifitng past us as we made our way back to the office for a well earned cuppa at 10.00.
And the weather front that we are currently experiencing isn’t all bad - as I made my way around Phase 1 yesterday afternoon I was treated to my first sighting of sand martins in 2012 feeding low over the water. I watched a total of 7 birds working their way around Phase 1 before disappearing off into the distance over Phase 2. Poor weather such as this often brings birds down to lower levels enabling great views.