This was one of our rarer sessions planned for earlier in the day and with +1 expected we decided to maintain a presence at both the reed bed and water meadow. Unfortunately our help couldn’t join us but we decided to split our efforts anyway. The meadow supports a small pool in Spring and early Summer, but is usually long gone by this stage of the year. This was an unusual opportunity, but we still wanted to monitor what was happening in the reeds.
We put up 100ft of nets at the lake edge then put up a further three doubles covering three edges of open water in the water meadow. We saw two Sandwich Terns while setting up, prompting hopes that there could be ‘a bit around’ today.
I (Denise) took the first walk to the reeds and returned with three Reed Warblers and a Sedge, but Chris had surpassed himself while I was away by managing to extract and retain three Snipe that had hit the net together. Having the birds together helped with differentiation of their ages.
We tried unsuccessfully for Meadow Pipit at the flashes (although a few were seen heard) and Swallow, managing one bird as it skimmed the area catching some of the myriad of insect life rising above the water. The reed bed produced more warblers including Blackcap, Common and Lesser Whitethroat, Willow and Garden warbler.
The day was topped off by a juvenile Osprey over at 10.40am heading East.
Snipe
Lesser Whitethroat
Swallow
flooded flash
Totals - 27
Snipe - 3
Swallow - 1
Dunnock - 1
Reed Warbler - 9
Sedge Warbler - 4
Whitethroat - 2
Lesser Whitethroat - 1
Garden Warbler - 4
Blackcap - 1
Willow Warbler - 1