Back from a couple of weeks working in the USA, and it was a beautiful Sunday morning. After a relaxing breakfast we pulled our stuff together and decided on a visit to Warwickshire Wildlife Trust Brandon Marsh. We arrived to find the car park full - visitors had taken to parking their cars along the access road - we followed suit. Despite the volume of visitors we managed to find a table in the Badgers Tearoom and enjoyed our bowls of soup.
Out on the reserve we opted for our usual circuit through New Hares Covert. By the tall trees we saw nuthatch (2), song thrush (2), great spotted woodpeckers (2) and treecreepers (2). We found it odd that earlier posts on Twitter had mentioned many chiffchaff as they were silent in all their usual haunts.
From the Baldwin Hide we watched as a great crested grebe fished close by the hide. Eventually he caught a substantial roach and took some time to get it over. It then cruised gently across the water, having had sufficient and deserving a break. 
We could see two little ringed plover (#96) and two oystercatchers on the scrape.
Nothing exciting from the EMP, just three shelduck and some odd gulls which all turned out to be juveniles of common species, so moved on to have a look at Teal Pool. Earlier there were reports of a jack snipe showing well. As we waited a few people dropped by but none had any views. We had to make do with a couple of feeding redshank. Just as we were about to leave - yes definitely this time - I found a snipe in the reeds on the far bank. As it skulked around, behind the reeds, I convinced myself that it was the jack snipe. Unfortunately, I looked at cropped photos when we got home, and it was obviously a common snipe. Bugger.
From later hides we picked out some stock doves and a kestrel basking in the sun, on one of the large bird houses mounted in trees. As we approached the Visitor's Centre we at last heard a group of chiffchaff calling. They were there after all!
Sightings (46) included: black-headed gull, blackbird, blue tit, buzzard, canada goose, carrion crow, chaffinch, chiffchaff, common gull, coot, cormorant, dunnock, gadwall, goldfinch, great black-backed gull, great crested grebe, great spotted woodpecker, great tit, greylag goose, herring gull, jackdaw, kestrel, lapwing, lesser black-backed gull, little grebe, little ringed plover, long-tailed tit, magpie, mallard, mute swan, nuthatch, oystercatcher, pied wagtail, redshank, reed bunting, robin, shelduck, shoveler, snipe, song thrush, stock dove, teal, treecreeper, tufted duck, wigeon and woodpigeon.
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