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| A Welcome New Arrival (Willow Warbler) |
On the migration front the only additions since my last post have been a small number of Willow Warblers, the one pictured above found singing his little heart out near the farm area this morning.
A Fox near the main entrance on my arrival on Saturday morning and with low cloud a good number of Sand Martin had come down with decent numbers around East Marsh Pool, the odd Swallow mixed in!
Today a shock to the system with -5C when I left the marina but the day started off well enough with one of the local Little Owls perched atop the telephone pole. While I was busy scrapping the frost from the car windscreen a Yellowhammer was already singing away and several Skylark could be heard in the adjacent field. Having seen a large black bird land in a field on route to Brandon I pulled off the A425 for a better look to find a Raven, a rare sight to find a local one not on the wing!
I decided to take a different route than normal on arrival at Brandon and having met up with Martin Durkin in the car park we made for the Farm Field area in search of anything interesting, Wheatear, Stonechat or Whinchat, we weren't being fussy. Alas no but the above pictured Willow Warbler bucked up the spirits!
Many more Blackcaps are now on the reserve and after finding my first female♀ of the year near Wright Hide, where a second Willow Warbler was singing, a pair of Blackcaps were also seen near the bench on route to Carlton Hide. Other highlights of the day were 6 Goldcrest, Little Ringed Plover and the two Willow Tits I've been watching for some weeks were finally seen mating, sadly all I got was one blur on top of another when I cracked off a few shots of the happy event.
Another positive for Brandon was the sight of a Buzzard on what looks to be an old crows nest, which these birds are prone to using. If this is in fact confirmed as a nesting bird I'm reliably informed that this would be a first for Brandon. Also seen during my visit to were 2 Swallow, various numbers of Sand Martin, 2 Redshank, 3 Oystercatcher and 3 Treecreeper. No Butterfly records during this visit but with the early frost who can blame them.
