Brandon Marsh :: 28 May 2011

A blustery day which was forecast to have rain showers throughout the afternoon. After an early lunch we set off for an afternoon on the reserve; rain on the journey up made us worry that we might end up just having a coffee in the tea room. We needn't have worried as the sun broke through the clouds as soon as we got onto the paths and didn't leave us all afternoon. In fact we got a bit hot in our waterproof tops.

There were significant numbers of juvenile great and blue tits at the reserve feeders being chased by two squirrels having their fill. A good number of rabbits also populated the paths.

Again, there were whitethroats everywhere. Every bush seemed to have some; their songs singing through the wind (reducing to breeze as the afternoon wore on). We came across one guy who had spent 2hrs in the same spot watching a pair of whitethroats who were showing well and had shots where you could virtually identify the insects in their beaks. Passing views of linnet were also good.

Our species for the day numbered 37 and included: great tit, feral pigeon, chaffinch, great-spotted woodpecker, reed bunting, bullfinch, blue tit, magpie, swallow, blackbird, woodpigeon, greylag goose, mallard, canada goose, carrion crow, linnet, swift, jay, whitethroat, tufted duck, grey heron, lapwing, coot, black-headed gull, cormorant, redshank, ringed plover, pied wagtail, common tern, sand martin, mute swan, stock dove, great-crested grebe, moorhen, robin, oystercatcher and willow warbler.

Our favourite of the day was the jay who seemed to have found rather a lot of new berries on a nearby tree.