'Here Comes the Weekend'......Two visits

Visit one:

Friday 19 April

As Dave Edmunds said....'here comes the weekend'....and with Mr Met Office promising sun sun sun tomorrow I was planning a visit early....for a change I hear you say!
With this in mind by the time Friday afternoon had arrived I was jittery with excitement.  Would the Nightingales have arrived, what about a Blackcap on site....or anything will do....!!
With this in mind I planned an escape...though it would have to be a short visit as I was supposed to be on the road by 7pm heading for Sussex.
...the best laid plans of mice and men....my wife rolled in later than planned....so my short visit got even shorter....

17.10 Easterly F1, cloudy
I wanted to get to the pits pronto....so not much time was spent meandering....out of the car, boots on (no wellies...woohoo)...House Sparrow chirping, Blackbird, Collared Dove....must get on....Starling....move on...Chaffinch

Chaffinch on singing post

....lets go...Great Tit, Blue Tit, Jackdaw, Woodpegeon....go...go....Robin....3 Mallard over flying West....a minute later another flying East....across the fields to the sound of Skylark and Crow with the usual yaffles of Green Woodpecker...2 more Mallard in the ditch flying North and veering along the Easterly ditch and down...
Ah...ahah...Blackcap singing in the little copse as I approached the pits....and the usual Chiffchaff accompiniment.  I decided that there would be no counting today so that I could press on.
Grey Heron, Magpie, Coot, Moorhen, Tufted Duck, Little Grebe....and...wowser....loads of Swallows and Martins over the larger pit.  This is more like it....they drifted this way and that I suppose following the insect tide mid air.  At least 40 Swallows swooped with Sand and House Martin that were in much lesser number but happy to play.  So I stopped and watched for about ten minutes.
Finally pushing on a Cormorant passed by and a Great Crested Grebe lazed.  Mute Swan...yes...oooh...Mandarin...havent seen one of them for...ages...so nice to see two.

Not a great photo, this time my camera thru my bins.

I tried to get closer to the pit to get a better shot, but they swam further out so I retreated and hoped but to no avail.  Still, its a record shot, as they say (or crap to others!).

Willow Warbler obliged as well as Reed Bunting busily being busy.  Then...hmmm...whats this....something skulking in the scrub....cursing me im guessing...refusing to itch and scratch sing....a few minutes wandering along the scrub found a Whitethroat not really wanting to be seen.

Time to go....I found another Whitethroat by the bridge leading back to the fields, this one much more obliging though still not singing.

Meadow Pipit was calling on the way back.

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