Tuesday 19th - Friday 22nd May
There's been precious little to report recently. The only birds left on the floods have been a few black-headed gulls, corvids, mallards, the odd gadwall, pied wagtails, a grey heron or two and a few mute swans. There are plenty of hirundines around and I suspect that some swallows are nesting somewhere near the river. I've also seen pied wagtails with beaks full of insects who must have a nest nearby. The odd COMMON TERN has been seen flying along the river, perhaps having nipped over the hill from Farmoor.
Within Burgess Field the warblers are noticably quieter there days, getting on with the job of raising their young. There was a very vocal sedge warbler that used to sing almost constantly close to the gate and I presumed that he'd not yet managed to attract a mate. However recently he too has become noticably quieter and I wondered whether he'd given up and moved on. However I did hear him singing briefly a few days ago so I hope that this means that he was finally able to get down to the job of raising a family. The CETTI'S WARBLER is still around and the last couple of days I have heard and once even briefly saw him out of his usual terrain a bit further north and on the other side of the path. I wonder whether he's been successful in attracting a mate. There's been a kestrel about hunting in the Nature Reserve recently and on Friday I saw a female SPARROWHAWK with a starling in her talons.
A whitethroat in a hawthorn bush © Kevin Henshaw
Within Burgess Field the warblers are noticably quieter there days, getting on with the job of raising their young. There was a very vocal sedge warbler that used to sing almost constantly close to the gate and I presumed that he'd not yet managed to attract a mate. However recently he too has become noticably quieter and I wondered whether he'd given up and moved on. However I did hear him singing briefly a few days ago so I hope that this means that he was finally able to get down to the job of raising a family. The CETTI'S WARBLER is still around and the last couple of days I have heard and once even briefly saw him out of his usual terrain a bit further north and on the other side of the path. I wonder whether he's been successful in attracting a mate. There's been a kestrel about hunting in the Nature Reserve recently and on Friday I saw a female SPARROWHAWK with a starling in her talons.
A whitethroat in a hawthorn bush © Kevin Henshaw