Friday April 21

A cloudy morning with hardly a breathe of wind. Mild.

The first notable bird of the day was a Mistle Thrush, which turned out to be nesting in trees surrounding the car-park. I got to the water's edge near the cafe where I heard a singing Reed Warbler, my first this year. Unfortunately it failed to show itself.

I decided to walk anti-clockwise around the lake, and was about a quarter of the way around when I spotted a Common Tern on one of the buoys.

Common Tern

My limited experience of the site leads me to believe that this species is virtually resident here in the summer. However, a definite passage migrant on a jetty in front of the sailing club was a Common Sandpiper.

Common Sandpiper

Unfortunately I was only able to view it at some distance as you cannot get access to the sailing club property. I later saw it, or another, in flight. Other species seen included Kingfisher, Grey Wagtail, and all three hirundines. Blackcaps were in good voice, although I didn't see any as well as a bird I photographed on a very brief visit yesterday.

Blackcap

About half way round I met the lady I had chatted to on my visit at the end of March, her name being Jenny. She was counting the grebe, Coot, and Mute Swan nests for the BTO. I reminded her of the Little Egret we had seen snagged in vegetation at the end of March. It turned out that she had let the park-keepers know, and the bird had disappeared when she next visited, so they either rescued it, or it was able to free itself.

We walked the rest of the way together, noting singing Treecreeper and Nuthatch, and a pair of Oystercatchers on the heron island. There must be a chance that they will attempt to breed.

Anyway, the three new species seen today were all birds I have yet to record at Morton Bagot this year, and none is guaranteed to occur there.