super gull

as anyone who looked at the site last spring will know I am a great fan of Little Gulls and there can be few birds to beat a summer adult for grace and stunning good looks so it was great to have one all be it fairly briefly on Waters' Edge this morning

more LG's

a few more Little Gull images---excuse the visitor centre in the background of the good shot!

mixed bag

a few more images from Sunday--the stoat was hunting Water Voles along the ditch side along Far Ings lane; Great Crested on Waters' edge and some of the Common Terns which have now returned in force and are displaying around the pits

more groppers

with the Grasshopper Warbler still performing very well today and good light this morning I just had to take a few more shots!

oddments

a late start to the day on the local patch but a creditable 93 species seen including Cuckoo, Hobby, Goosander, 203 Turnstone, Reeve, this male Bittern making use of a winter burn in the reedbed, and a superb Little Gull ----plenty of migrants in now including 200+ Swifts

harrier side line

as an aside to the gropper photo series below this nice male Marsh Harrier added to the species variety for the brief morning photo session

reeler

see below for full text on the Grasshopper photos

nailing the gropper

with wedding attendance looming later in the morning the sight of bright sunlight streaming through the curtains prompted me to get out and have another go at the local Grasshopper Warblers---experience over the years has shown me that they only sing from exposed perches for a very limited period in late April and early May, as a rule, and if you miss this window then another year has passed---invariably the weather is a key factor and in poor wet springs there may not be a single morning when the birds perform---2006 was proving to be a good spring for me having seen/heard 6 birds to date and with two local birds the species was high on the target list but so far birds had either sung for only short periods or had been firmly esconced in the middle of bushes or inaccessible in bushes in reedbeds---by 06:40 this morning I had located the best of our local birds access wise and it was performing very well the problem now being that every bush it used for singing was being disputed by an aggressive male Sedge Warbler!---eventually though it all came together and I was able to get some good shots just witht he 300mm lens of this very obliging bird in some nice light before the clouds built form the north

butts

several butterflies on the wing 27th including the first Speckled Wood at Waters' Edge---two new Grasshopper Warblers and singing male Brambling were the best birds with 55 Swifts by 28th

super snake

this adult grass snake was the first live one I have recorded in my forest patch and what a superb individual it was

another day in the forest

the Tree Pipit count in my forest patch reached 42 males today but of more interest were the first Grasshopper Warblers for six years and three males were in song---I like the composition of the Great Spot photo