Well I can't believe how quiet this forum is and I hope i'm not the only one who still peeks to see if there are any posts. This is in the nature of a catch up since my trip to Mallorca last month, so I've got quite a backlog of stuff.
First things a general round up of Uskmouth - the hectic season of display and feeding the young has settled down now and sightings are a lot rarer as most reed bed birds keep their heads down in the immediate post-fledging period, although male Reed Buntings seem to hold station up and down the reserve and there are occasional sightings of Beardies, Reed and Sedge Warblers.
I was lucky with some sightings previously so I'll post a few of those first.
Cetti's returning to nest with food for their young. visible from the Wales Coastal Path.
I am always seriously happy to see Cetti's because, like most people, for years I only knew them as an explosive call, not one view, because they are so secretive and 'skulking'. Now with a little more fieldcraft I can usually get to see them and luckily these birds were a bit preoccupied.
Having picked one my sons up from a night shift I was down at Uskmouth at 5:30 in the morning on the 29th of May and I heard a familiar call. it was a Locustella warbler and I knew immediately that it wasn't a Grasshopper because of the frequency. I quickly crossed the bridge, rounded the corner and saw a Savi's Warbler reeling in the reed bed to the left of the bridge as viewed from the lighthouse. I thought I'd better record this sighting and did a quick hand -held video seen here.
Unfortunately although I have audio of it reeling subsequently it didn't continue to reel for more than a couple of days unlike our visiting Savi's in an adjacent seedbed two years ago, when it stayed displaying and reeling for a couple of weeks. This gave me an opportunity to make a much better video.
and one with close ups
I was speaking to a keen twitcher, who came down to try to see it, he told me about the Little Bittern over in Somerset. The first year it was seen it was calling and displaying like mad, the next year it came with a mate and just got down to breeding. So fingers crossed it may be the same with the Savi's - it wasn't seen last year, but that doesn't mean it wasn't here. It may have come back and in the short window of it calling nobody who knew what it was heard it. it is stretching the bounds of probability that it isn't the same bird as 2014 so my theory, for what it's worth, is that it has come back with a mate and got straight down to breeding!
Finally for this first catch up my favourite bird of the reed beds the Bearded Tit. I have been lucky enough to see them recently. There was a period when they were nesting in the reed bed to the right of the pontoon bridge as viewed from the bridge and regularly flying across the lagoon to collect food for the brood. I had good but distant views. This period is over and until the fledglings start getting more adventurous I'm not expecting to see too many, however I was lucky enough to capture these photos of a pair the other day and the female is from 3 weeks ago.
I don't want to overdo it so I'll leave it there for now. Hope to see the fledglings any day now!