A busy evening for terns at Boddington Reservoir on Wednesday but the mention of grasshopper warbler by Dylan Parry-Davies and John Friendship-Taylor spurred me to visit before breakfast (and work). I got there at about 6.30am and heard the gropper reeling at the end of a hedge in the field opposite the car park. I followed the call and as I reached the source the bird hopped onto the fence and into the tree, where it started singing.
At that point I heard Adrian and Sandra Bletchly open the top gate and make their way down. I'd read that Adrian had heard the bird the previous day but that it had gone quiet when he looked. Almost as soon as the reached me the gropper took to the trees again and gave us a show - it couldn't get any better!
We left and made our way round the reservoir to see what else was on offer but I didn't add anything of note but had common terns, chiffchaff and willow warbler. We chatted to a very nice chap who is an ecologist working alongside many of the building projects, including HS2 - it was getting near time I made for the office in Banbury so walked back with him. We decided to have a look for the gropper but only heard it briefly - he headed for the car but I stayed on for another few minutes - I'm gald I did as the gropper started singing in the tree but out of view. However, it then dropped into the scrub behind a fence and then onto the barbed wire - I almost died with the view I had ...
In some ways it is sad to think that this encounter will likely be the best I ever have with this species, but what an experience!
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