SWALLOWS AND SWIFTS AT FARMOOR

With a cold north wind blowing over  Farmoor Reservoir, the swallows and swifts may have felt like returning to Africa, but there were hundreds of them, plus sand martins and house martins swooping low over the water and causeway, only a few feet away from where I stood. 

Several common sandpipers were huddled together on one of the rafts, whilst a mallard family attempted to shelter alongside one of the moored boats. 

Three yellow  wagtails and some pied wagtails, put in an appearance together with an a wheatear whilst a few common tern  ( or could have been arctic as  both were present today) were also feeding over the water. 

Birds of note today:

wheatear
yellow wagtail
pied wagtail 
swift
swallow
house martin
sand martin
grey heron
greylag goose
cettis warbler
tufted duck
mallard
coot
common tern
kestrel
red kite
common sandpiper
cormorant
great crested grebe

house martins etc flying low over the causeway

common sandpipers

greylags

wheatear

mallard family

swallow

yellow wagtails

swallows and sandmartin

A FEW BUTTERFLIES

With the butterfly season just starting, I popped over to Stanton park to see what was around. Although it was quite breezy, there were a few sheltered sunny spots where I managed to find orange tips, commas , green-veined whites  and a single holly blue  (the last two being new sightings for the year).

The lake was pretty empty, apart from  a few coots; a pair of swans are nesting in the reeds, and I also found a mallard x hybrid with a couple of tiny ducklings. In the trees the highlights were nuthatch, goldcrest and a singing blackcap. 

comma

green veined white

holly blue

singing blackcap

ducklings with this female  hybrid who paired with  a mallard

SIGHTS AND SOUNDS OF OTMOOR

I abandoned my usual Saturday lie-in today in favour of a morning at Otmoor RSPB reserve where it was a beautiful spring morning, with birdsong all around. On arriving at the almost full car park at 8.30 a.m. a blackcap was singing,  a grasshopper warbler reeling and a cuckoo calling. With the blackthorn blossom in full bloom it really looked and felt like spring. 

Along the track and bridleway I had my first sightings this year of sedge and reed warblers; (I'm beginning to differentiate between their songs now!) and later one of two cuckoos seen, perched up in a tall tree giving nice views. As I walked towards the first screen I was shown a whimbrel, distant in a field of mainly greylags and lapwing but another tick for the year.  A snipe was drumming overhead.

Brimstones and orange tips were all around, but hardly ever stopping. 

cuckoo

reed warbler

orange tip

SUNNY AFTERNOON AT SLIMBRIDGE

The end of the first week back after the school holidays, and I was off the spend the rest of the day enjoying the warm sunshine at Slimbridge WWT centre. 

I didn't really have much in mind regarding target birds, a glossy ibis and mediterranean gulls being the only possibilities, but I'd not been during April so looked forward to feeling the sense of anticipation of summer. The blossom was out, and various birds were nest building, if not incubating, and there were even a few broods of young around, including greylag goslings, mallard and gadwall chicks. 

I took my usual route up towards the Holden tower, calling in at the Rushy Pen; then visited the Discovery Hide. This is where I was likely to see the Mediterranean gulls, and indeed the guide quickly pointed out a pair to me on on one of the islands; the centre is hoping that they may decide to nest here. 

avocets on the Rushy...

...and from the Holden tower

shelduck on the Rushy

mediterranean gulls

Across the water he also pointed out some gadwall chicks which were keeping close to the overhanging vegetation. As I was about to leave, he asked if I'd seen the glossy ibis yet, as it had been showing in front of the Zeiss hide! Having missed this bird the last time I visited the centre, and assuming that it was not around as I'd not seen it from the hides on the Holden walkway, things were now sounding hopeful!  

Enquiring at the hide, I was told it had been seen fairly near the hide but was now hiding behind some reeds further away!  I could see a dark shape then it appeared for a few seconds before retreating. Well, at least I'd seen it! As we waited we had lovely views of a grey heron wading in front of the hide. 

With plenty of time to spare, I popped up to the kingfisher hide and watched the male kingfisher outside the nesting bank before it turned and flew off up (down) stream. Returning to the Zeiss hide, I was informed I had missed it again, but it was now hiding nearer to the hide than before. Feeling hopeful, I waited around for a while, and the ibis reappeared, long enough to take some record photos and a short video. 

Time for an ice cream then home!

A SUNNY DAY...

It's been a beautiful day today, so I made the most of another opportunity to look for yellow wagtails at Farmoor reservoir. The weather has brought out the brimstone butterflies and I managed my first photo of one  this year.

On arrival,  I had my first sighting of the year of mallard ducklings, carefully being shepherded along by their mother, along the edge of the water until she decided it was safe to get out whereby they  followed her one by one and started to preen. 

I crossed the causeway, noting a red crested pochard and the goldeneye from previous visits as well as many pied wagtails.  I was then joined by another birder, from Buckingham,  who asked me about using the hide, so I told him I had the code and we made for the nature reserve, whereby we found  two others, who I know from Swindon,  endeavouring to use the code but, like me, on a previous occasion hadn't successfully opened the door. Someone rang the ranger who told us to turn the handle to the right  rather than to the left and ..success... we got in! Not that there was anything to see in front of the hide, of course,  but it was a chance to catch up on what was about in the locality. 

With limited time to spend at Farmoor, I followed the path back up to the causeway, seeing blackcaps and a reed warbler,  before joining up with the fellow birders from Swindon, who had left the hide a little earlier,  looking for yellow wagtails.  Two were pointed out to me, at a distance, on the roof of part of the Thames Water complex, although eventually one did come down on the grass the other side of the  railings and I managed a half decent photo .

I also learned that the Sherborne osprey had reappeared, or rather it may be a different one, as it seems there may have been up to four there, so if I get a chance I'll try again to see one. 

goldeneye

reed bunting

pied wagtail

yellow wagtail

SHERBORNE BROOK

You  might remember Sherborne as being the home of Spring Watch last year. Over the last week there has been an osprey, fishing in the brook in the Broadwater area  of the brook and being seen frequently perched in the trees. To be honest I thought ospreys only stopped for a short while before  going onward on the last leg of their migration journeys, so having read that it had been there a week, I thought I might as well see if it was still there. 

I decided to park in the Ewe Pen car park up the road, so that I could make the visit a little longer by going for a walk through the Sherborne Estate (NT). The first part of the walk passed alongside a meadow of cows and calves, then led into some woodland. Oops, path closed through the woodland so I took an alternative route down to the road which ran along the edge. I walked along the road and stopped by a wall overlooking the area  where I expected the osprey to be. Beautiful views across to the brook, with lots of sheep and lambs, but no osprey and no one else for that matter!   As I waited a few other hopeful birders came along, and together we scoured the trees but to no avail. A few birds were to be seen by the brook included swans, mallard, gadwall, canada geese, moorhen, grey heron and buzzards soaring above. I learned that the osprey had been seen at around 8.30 am. and had flown downstream. 

I decided to return to the car, and drove across a couple of road bridges that crossed the brook but couldn't there was no sign of any osprey. Back home I saw someone had tweeted that the bird eventually appeared around 5.30 pm as it flew back upstream then up and away north. Still there's always next year, and meanwhile a visit to Rutland is always a possibility later in this year. 

OARE MARSHES

Another new reserve for me - Oare Marshes in Kent gave me my first sightings of bearded tits for the year. 
The reserve includes mudflats, open water, sea wall, saltmarsh and reedbeds and has three hides. 
The reserve can get very busy if there are some good birds about, and the road  to it almost impassable if there is something mega, so I was relieved to see there were a few spaces left in the smallish car park. After parking,  I took a route west along the sea wall, passing the saltmarsh. In this area I found  various duck species; teal, shovelers, shelduck together with  redshanks, grey  heron and coot as well as linnets, meadow pipits and mute swans. 

 Then I followed the path east past the mudflats, mostly covered with water as the tide was in, but still attracting some redshank. On the opposite side were the reed beds, where I could see good numbers of reed buntings, including some singing males. Also sedge warblers could be heard quite loudly but  disappointingly, they were well hidden. Further on I stopped as I could hear some 'pinging' of bearded tits, and after waiting a while could see one or two rising from the reedbeds and then sinking back down again. (My first the of the year.)  Linnets and goldfinches also perched for a minute or two on some of the bushes bordering the reed beds. 

As I continued on the path back to to the road and on to the car I could see on the floods  there were blackheaded gulls, gadwall, mallard and tufted ducks, two little egrets, and oyster catchers and a couple of avocets on one of the islands,

reed beds where the bearded tits were. 

sleeping avocets.