Having not been out for about a week due to work commitments I was seriously missing some warbling noises. Being stuck around town I had been reduced to just Chiffchaff...not that I'm complaining about that as I love them....the bright voice of late winter/early spring all the way thru to late autumn/early winter.....a joy....
But this news....meant...hold the warbling....walk past the warblers....with just one...well, two actually.....destinations on my mind....middle pit and west pit....
1815 - 1930 bright, cool, good visibility, light breeze
......so it was a stomp to the far pits from the parking spot....whichever way I had decided to go in it was the same distance....
Reaching middle pit....hmmmm....Swift....maybe a dozen...then at least 30 and more...wow...on any other day this would have been the absolute highlight....but not today....finally I got to west pit....a brief look round....nothing....bah!....a few minutes elapsed....then....coming in from the west...
Black Tern......
WooooooooooooooooooooooooooW!!!!!!!
A big moment....I haven't seen a Black Tern for years.....what an absolute privilege...
That's it....that speck....above the tree...
An exciting moment in an already busy birding year for me....(I'm usually ringing them rather than going out watching, so this year has already produced many treats I haven't seen for some time....but this....is special)....
And how special it would get.....with the Black Tern hawking along the west bank of the west pit, I was viewing from the east side....I sneaked around and managed to get reasonably close views in the south west corner.....I sat on the bank, semi obscured by a small birch....watching the Tern....I swept across the pit with my binoculars and in the far corner another bird was hawking insects...a Hobby...
After a while I sneaked back round to the north east corner where the Hobby was working...providing excellent views though eventually he saw me and moved over to the far side....so I moved back to my original position when I had arrived earlier....
Two more birds flew in....Terns.....2 Common Terns.....one interested in chasing the Black Tern and the other skimming the water (hang on...maybe it was a Skimmer!)....
The sun was on its last legs and had made for the horizon....so I made for the car...as I left the pit a Nighitngale started near warbler corner....excellent....not a bad evening at all...
Whitethroat, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat, Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Cettis Warbler, House Martin, Swallow, a Mandarin Duck.....and a Gadwall...
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