Well woke up this morning and it was pissing down, this makes the choice of where to go simple we needed somewhere where there are hides for us to shelter in, so off we go again to Belvide I'm glad we did as I ended up with 5 year ticks.

The rain had died down when we arrived so it wasn't too bad weather wise just a bit cold more like February than April.

There were hundreds of Hirundines (Sand Martins and Swallows) over the water, I even managed to see a House Martin which is the first of my year ticks, I then heard a Reed Warbler from the hide, tick number 2. On walking down to the Bryant hide we started to hear Willow Warblers tick number 3.

From the Bryant hide we saw 2 Terns which I thought were Common Terns but then found out later that they were Arctic Terns tick number 4 ( this is one of the reasons I class myself as a Dude Birder as I can't tell the difference between a Common and Arctic Tern).

Finally Saw Steve Nuttall down the Lane and he pointed out 2 Sedge Warblers in the hedge tick No 5.

Saw our first fledglings of the year this morning a mallard with 7 chicks, we had been told there were 14 originally, the Pikes in the pool must be having a Bean Feast.

Mallard Chick

Well I won't be doing my Blog for the next couple of weeks as I'm off to Cyprus to see what wonderous birds I can see there. I will report back when I return after May 11th.