Well I've been lucky enough to have spent the last two days touring various groups round both Arne and Radipole in glorius sunshine and what a mad mix of species there was on show!
I have to start off with the big brown noisy bird in the Radipole reeds - the Great Reed Warbler. For those of you like me, who knows very little about rare birds this chap is basically a regular reed warbler that has swallowed growth hormones. It is very big (blackbird sized) very noisy and to be honest it looks too big to be able to cling on a reed without it buckling. Rather convieniently the two best places to spot it from was the new semi circular boardwalk or the new jetty (I knew those new bits and bobs would come in handy!!) on the buddliea loop. But the noise at Radipole in general was brilliant, standing in the reeds you can't even hear a car over the mass of exploading cetti's warblers, chatting reed warblers and stuttering sedge warblers. There are a few lesser whitethroats popping around (the picture below looks a tad boring, I assure you they aren't!)
For your best chance to see one of these chaps hang around the new kingfisher silver access gate.
Yesterday I saw a few marsh harrier food passes right slap bang in front of the hide, I always think we forget how special it is to have these amazing raptors right in the middle of town, and to have such amazing views is almost unheard of.
Plenty of kingfisher action, although the pair nesting next to the sand martin wall were washed out in the floods, they should be back, it will just take them a few weeks to get back to business. There were also 4 white stork seen flying over the reserve so goodness knows what they are doing!
In other news i recommend the ham rolls in the centre! Delicious!