So..... at last a nice spring day and after an unsteady start it turned into something quite memorable. Despite the lack of early morning Garganey things soon started to look up (quite literally) with the first of several obviously moving Buzzards from Paul and Jack Hawkins. By late morning this had reached 18 birds along with seven non-local Marsh Harriers and such obvious movement attracted the attention of our own Buzzards and Marsh Harriers as well as the Peregrine pair and both Ravens who were mooching about. Things petered out at about 3pm by which time 34 Buzzards and 11 Marshies had headed north east (often in small groups). An adult male Hen Harrier was also seen with male Marsh Harrier and a couple of Buzzards in the same thermal and two Sparrowhawks and three Kestrels made for continued viewing. With room for one more raptor, Ruth and Phil squeezed in a circling Merlin above the woodland making it an eight raptor week.
Buzzard (Russ Sherriff)
Deep breath... no hirundines bar a couple of Swallows today but the warm still air was causing the Cetti’s Warblers to really get going and get showing with at least 19 males belting out around the trail. One visitor saw ten! Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps were in good voice and the first Willow Warbler was trying to sing in the Cordite. Waders were again a feature with both ‘ringed’ Plovers, Grey Plover, Greenshank, Ruff, 17 Snipe, 2 Black Tailed Godwit, Avocet, Whimbrel and 28 Curlew while the numbers of displaying Redshank and Lapwing is simply superb.
There are still good numbers of ‘winter’ duck including five pair of Pintail and many Shoveler and in fact any of the dabblers could breed here if they chose to stay. The pair of Garganey that were so problematical yesterday were refound by the Bills at lunchtime and showed well on the flood closest to the Bogwood part of the trail and were still happily feeding there when I ambled round after work.
Garganey (HTV)
Bearded Tits were very much a feature today with pairs seen and heard at four different spots on the trail so hopefully a similar outcome to 2014 may be on the cards and the Kingfishers seem to becoming more settled at the MDZ bank. The Water Pipit was again seen from the Butts Hide but there were no Wheatears today.
And last but not least... the rarest bird of the day... a Red-legged Partridge (another find by the Bills) that I actually twitched as it was viewable from Dent’s Drop by the woodland. A surprisingly rare bird here and not even annual, although it is already on the site year list and once back in the centre I was able to find it in my scope for a few more members of various Bird Race teams.
The new birds are coming in thick and fast and I reckon that Sedge Warbler and Whitethroat may fall tomorrow and I am still hoping for that flyover Osprey...
5-4-15