Another outing for the hide! and Woodcock survey

A good weather Bank Holiday, a rarity in itself! I managed a few hours out plus a quick visit to Rye Harbour for  TEREK SANDPIPER, great bird!!!
On the patch I managed 57 species over the weekend. There was nothing new for the year but some interesting sightings nonetheless. A couple of pairs of LONG TAILED TITS were busy visiting their respective nests feeding their young, other young in evidence were MOORHEN, MALLARD, MISTLE THRUSH and STARLING.

The youngsters are about

 

Young Mistle Thrush

There were a few SWIFT, SWALLOW and HOUSE MARTIN moving through but really small numbers, 6 SWIFT being the largest gathering! COMMON BUZZARDS tussled over the fields and over the house and 2 SPARROWHAWK were seen on Saturday with plus 1 KESTREL. Today a HOBBY added to the raptor count. After a 5 SPOT FLYS last week I could only find 1 today. A male REED BUNTING sung from the top lake the first one I've found this spring since the winter birds finally disappeared. Other birds this weekend were, KINGFISHER, LITTLE OWL, GOLDCREST, MARSH TIT, NIGHTINGALE and at least4 pairs of YELLOWHAMMER.
This morning I gave the hide another outing, I found a sunny corner and basically sat and waited. Below are a couple of the results of the 90 mins I spent looking into the bushes :-)

Nightingale above and below

This Great Spot dropped in briefly

Common Whitethroat

Finally Thursday night I joined a couple of friends to check out the Woodcocks locally between us we managed 45 sightings in a couple of hours plus one of us had Nightjar. Several times I had 2 birds together and it stayed dry, I'm looking forward to this weeks session.

A vocal Grey Heron!