This morning the weather was horrendous! Heavy rain, strengthening wind and cold temperatures (not what was forecast!) made the Breeding Bird Survey rather miserable. However, whilst sat next to silt lagoon 6 I couldn’t help but take in the beautiful dawn chorus that was unfolding around me, despite the poor weather conditions.
Reed buntings, yellowhammers, willow warblers, blackcaps, Cetti’s warblers, sedge warblers, blackbirds, song thrushes, skylarks, dunnocks, robins and wrens didn’t seem at all bothered by the wet, windy and cold conditions as I sat listening to the spectacle at 05.30. It was perhaps the best dawn chorus I have heard so far this year, in the worst weather possible for bird surveying!
The migrants are still trickling in slowly, with 17 willow warblers, 11 blackcaps and 2 sedge warblers on site now, another 3 passage wheatears last week and more hirundines making an appearance with sand martin numbers building up and both swallows and house martins now recorded on site.
And on the subject of migrant warblers, listen out for the sedge warbler singing in silt lagoon 6 by the footpath….it was doing a very convincing reed warbler impression this morning and almost had me fooled – until it gave in and let out a burst of typical sedge warbler song!