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
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