A very wet and dismal Brandon Marsh Monday morning, only highlight being my first Brandon
Yellow Wagtail of the year, when one dropped onto Willow Island briefly mid morning. However, the highlight of the day came at bedtime, as while poking my head out of the hatch for some fresh air a
Curlew flew through in the darkness calling, can't remember when my last local one was!
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| Bird of the day - Lesser-spotted Woodpecker |
An early start to the day at Brandon this morning (
Tuesday) with the anticipation of more migrants dropping in after last nights cloudless skies. A swift circuit of the tip area yielded
Blackcap,
Willow Warbler,
Swallow and several
Chiffchaff, but no additions to the now established aforementioned. The walk through to Wright Hide had (4)
Lesser Redpoll near the wind pump,
Bullfinch, (2)
Blackcap and
Goldcrest in New Hare Covert.
It wasn't until we reached the Wright Hide that the first notable of the day appeared in the form of
Avocet. This time only a single bird, a fortnight ago of course we had two birds on site, which delighted us for a few days, so lets hope this one hangs around for a while too.
An hour or so at East Marsh Hide had a couple of
House Martin in among the numerous
Sand Martins, sweeping low over the water on occasions and other notable's included: (3)
Swallow, (4)
Redshank, (4)
Oystercatcher, (2)
Little-ringed Plover, (3)
Great-crested Grebe and the likely domestic
Barnacle Goose.
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| Lesser-spotted Woodpecker |
The major highlight of the day came as Alban, Martin, Keith#2 and I entered Horsetail Glade, alerted first to the calls it wasn't long before we connected with a pair of
Lesser-spotted Woodpeckers, my first on site for well over two years! The birds were performing very well for most of the morning and in fact were displaying on occasions. However, I left just after lunch feeling frustrated and bloody angry when some **** decided to use a bird call app to attract the birds down!!! In fact I thought I was remarkably well restrained.
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| White Wagtail - In with roost at the Marina recently! |
Still annoyed a walk around Napton Reservoir to calm myself on route home produced several
Swallow over the water and a couple of
Meadow Pipit. Unfortunately I don't hold out much hope for any decent warblers currently as the water is so high it's only a few feet from the reed tops.
Subnote: PeterB also informed me that the
Grasshopper Warbler was reeling once again (
heard from the coach parking area) when he arrived at Brandon at around 6:15am!
