Before and After

A lovely sunny day in the North-East, perfect for some household chores - a lawn to cut and a car to wash.

"Pre" all of that was spent at West Hartford, catching up with both Gordon and his previous evening find, a single ruff. Not had one at West Hartford for a few years, so good to see.

"Post" all of that was spent on the bike - heading down the coast on a journey that not only was in a head wind pretty much all the way, but also included a 100% puncture - no slowly decreasing tyre pressure, just straight to flat. Damn them hawthorn thorns!  The target of the journey was thankfully secured, with the intermittent singing marsh warbler at St Mary's Wetland. A good addition to the bike list.

Out of the reeds...

Another trip to Hadston this afternoon, this time with Mark. Settled conditions and a bit of sunshine were more favourable, with the marsh warbler singing out in the open for most of our visit. Mimicry today included chaffinch, blackbird, sedge warbler, house sparrow and oystercatcher.

The "Reed" Warbler...

Spent a pleasant couple of hours trying to get images of the very vocal Hadston marsh warbler this afternoon. The clouds had lifted and the rain ceased, but the wind speed was not complimentary to a singing warbler - with the majority of viewing of the bird low in the reeds/scrub.

Most views were mid-range, but on a couple of instances he came very close - only to be obscured by reed!

Still, not often you get good views of marsh warbler, so thou shalt not complain... Lots of mimicry too, with barn swallow, blackbird, oystercatcher and common tern all thrown in for good measure!

2010 - Review January - June

2010 has been an awfully quick year - here are a few of my highlights...

Above - African Penguins at Simonstown, South Africa during out New Year holiday to the Western Cape
Below - A UK tick - black-throated thrush, Newholm, North Yorkshire, January

February saw a visit to Cleveland for a very obliging ring-necked duck ~ the best and most close views I've had of the species in the UK. A great bacon sandwich was has had courtesy of CB afterwards!

March saw the arrival of a common crane at Eshott ~  a vocal bird and not popular with the territorial lapwing!

April was a month of wagtails - the possible black-headed at Cresswell was a stunner... even in the rain!

May was a busy month - the first week was spent abroad, with visits to Dubai and Mauritius.

The red-wattled lapwing was in Safa Park, Dubai - a park that had playing fields covered in hoopoe!

Mauritius was limited species-wise, we saw some really great birds ~ echo parakeet, Mauritius olive white-eye, white-tailed tropicbird.... but the enigmatic pink pigeon will never be forgotten...

May also saw the first of 10 planned annual birding weekends with the birders of my youth - Mark, John and Rob. 2010 saw us on Mull and Iona where corncrake was bird of the trip!

May produced another UK tick for me - oriental pratincole at Frampton Marsh. I saw this delightful bird with Phil on a sunny day-trip.

June was quieter than hoped-for, but a singing marsh warbler was nice...

The rest of 2010 will feature in the next post!

Marsh acro...

I really struggled to get anything decent on the Druridge marsh warbler this afternoon - a combination of dull light and a very tricky and elusive bird, so a record shot it is... While I was there he mimicked chaffinch, greenfinch, goldfinch and an alarm calling blackbird!

First time I've seen one in reeds, although in fairness it was commuting between the reeds and the willows, often associating with a single reed warbler.

(Image updated on 11 June...)

Two visits to St Mary's

Late Sunday afternoon news of a singing marsh warbler had me heading to SMI after tea, and sure enough after a 45 minute wait or so the marsh warbler began to sing. Then stop. Then nothing for a bit. Then sing again, maybe a bit to the left from last time. And that was about it, one brief "flick" between bushes and that was our lot. Not much mimicry, a brief burst of blue tit and a few "chacks". Not the best.




So, after an early shift and news that the bird was still present, Monday afternoon was spent looking into the same bushes and willows. No luck today, although others present had had heard and seen the bird earlier...


A pair of whitethroat (female featured here) were actively feeding young, the occasional willow warbler sang and and a sedge warbler chipped in for a short while too. Not much else though!