01 May 2011

I got a unexpected early finish from work today, so early in fact I was out of the doors and on may way to Westport by 07.30, the problem was I had to walk from Chesterton to home, pick the dog up and bins then on to Westport, after a call from Nick telling me the Grasshopper Warbler was showing I picked up the pace and on eventually reaching the old sewage works passed Nick who said it's just been showing, great I thought, further up the path met up with Phil Jones, but as I arrived it stopped singing and there was no sign, great, I'm beginning to think I'm jinxed with this species at Westport, after a while and no joy Phil left and Jeff Jones arrived, still no joy we went further along the path and were about to give up when I heard it reeling, the problem was Jeff couldn't and I was beginning to think I was dreaming it, it went quiet again for a while and we made our way back to were it had been seen previously, almost immediately it started reeling right in front of us, and this time Jeff could hear it, we had a couple of brief views as it flited through the bramble growth and it kept teasing us by reeling right by us, views didn't improve but I didn't care, it's another Westport year tick and Westport lifer out of the way.

Had a quick look around the main lake there were about 10+ Swifts over the top of the main lake and 5 Greylag Geese on the main lake but not much else, earlier in his visit Nick had also seen 3 Little Ringed Plovers and 7 Cormorants.