Monday 9 May 2016

Birding Inside A Slow Cooker

Unfortunately I couldn't get out on the patch Sunday morning as I was in A & E for eight hours over Saturday night into Sunday morning (not for me but for my Mother who is okay), and four hours sleep in 48 hours meant that I needed a full nights sleep last night to catch up! Consequently I didn't get out this morning until just before eight when Gail went to work.

I headed down to the estuary and foolishly put my Barbour on which was like birding inside a slow cooker and I was getting slowly boiled alive! It was a relief to get back to my car and shed a few layers! Several warbler species were singing on my walk down and included Blackcap, four Sedge Warblers, a Reed Warbler, eight Whitethroats, a Chiffchaff, a Lesser Whitethroat and a Garden Warbler.

There was very little on the pool other than a Common Sandpiper, two Shelducks and a Great Crested Grebe. The saltmarsh held even less and all I noted were two Whimbrels and a male Kestrel.

 Great Crested Grebe

Shelduck

I then had a look at the reedbeds and scrub and again it was more warblers including Garden Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat, two Blackcaps, three Whitethroats, a Reed Warbler and four Sedge Warblers.

 There was lots of Herb Robert flowering in the more mature areas of scrub
and they help to brightrn up dark corners!

It's a funny time of year now as when you are out birding it feels as though everything is 'in', and movements and falls become few and far between, but you have to keep going as May can deliver some good birds. In addition to this it is good to record all the breeding birds and enter it all on to BirdTrack! With this in mind I will get out tomorrow as the next time I can get on the patch will be Friday.

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