29 April 2010

I'm back!! Thanks to Nick for looking after the blog for the last few days while I've been offline, nightmare but all sorted now, and what a good day to come back with a new Westport tick for me, more on that later.
Started out at 06.00 - 08.20, temperature was 15c and felt quite warm in the slight southerly breeze although it was very cloudy with a look of rain in the sky.
On the model boating lake, 5x Mute Swans and 2x Great Crested Grebe, looking rather sorry for themselves since there breeding attempt failed. 4x Little Ringed Plovers were on the grass verge and bank, on the main lake, 13x Tufted Duck, 4x Great Crested Grebe, 10x Mute Swans, 1x Shoveler and a lone Sand Martin flew over, at the top end 10+ Swifts were flying around.
In the Nature Reserve 4x Chiffchaff, a male Great Spotted Woodpecker, 2x Reed Warblers, 8x Blackcap (all over the park). The old sewage works and gas works had, Chiffchaff, 2x Whitethroat, 1x Garden Warbler, Blackcaps, 1x Reed Bunting, a pair of Bullfinch, Stock Dove and Grey Heron.
As I hadn't seen/heard a Willow Warbler today, I decided to have a look along the sidings and down along the woodland by the grass mound, 3x Lapwing flew over and a Sedge Warbler was calling on the sidings, I could hear the Willow Warbler singing, but I could hear something else which I wasn't quite sure what it was, as I got closer several species were going through my head, one of them was Wood Warbler, although I knew there were very few records for here, however when I got close I knew it was a Wood Warbler and soon located it singing from the top of a silver birch, I watched the bird for several minutes informing Nick and Phil of my find, it's a Westport tick for me and one I hoped would hang around for everyone to see, unlike the Pied Flycatcher was stayed for all of 10 min's.
A total of 8 species of Warbler where seen today.

Total species seen 45.

The Wood Warbler was relocated at 10.00 in the woodland at the back of the model boating lake, but it was heard singing only.