A couple of hour's wander around this lovely, quiet reserve. At the lockgates at Spellbrook a willow warbler was calling and from the towpath, some 400 yards north of the locks a lesser spotted woodpecker was first heard and then very briefly glimpsed in and through thick vegetation. A bird that is recorded from this area every year or so, but suspected to be much more of a resident. Breeding attempts were made by a male in 2014, but no female was every noted and the excavated hole was abandoned.
A garden warbler and several chiffchaffs also called from the "swamp" before I crossed the red brick bridge and on to the reserve. A water vole dropped into a ditch, followed by another near the feeders. 8 small tortoiseshell butterflies in total as well as a pair of orange tips.
A distant pair of whitethroats were new for the year, as were sedge warblers: 1 on the opposite bank from the water voles and one in Wallbury.
3 year listers (LSW, whitethroat and sedge warbler) and a good list of birds made this a most successful wander whilst the car was cleaned nearby.
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| small tortoiseshell |
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| long tailed tit |
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| neat drake mallard |
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| 1st of the year: distant whitethroat |
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| common buzzard overhead |
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| same bird |
2 comments:
cracking list Jono particularly the LSW. For the RSPB magazine the females quite often desert the nest and leave the males to rear the young.
Some warbler passage lower down the Stort today. Lots of Willow chiffs including a singing Willow Warbler where I don't normally see one. Also about 5 singing Lesser Whitethroats round the patch.
Cheers, John. I check every year along the stretch Spellbrook to Pig Lane for LSW. Not an annual bird but one I reckon is resident. Grasshopper warbler used to be a summer visitor to this patch and I was also hoping for cuckoo. Another week maybe.
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