April 13th 2009

A very frustrating morning. The cloud conditions we have had since last Thursday looked as if it would break in the night but instead we had mist and low cloud and very light south east winds which took a while to clear becoming hazy for most of the morning when it did. By the time I had been joined by the Bumbling Bears, the Hutton Crew and the Phillips duo on farborough spit I had been there an hour and seen zilch.
Eventually we found yesterdays four immature Little Gulls still out in centre along with an adult summer Med Gull which is probably the one recorded yesterday that I had missed and 2 Great-northern Divers including one in flight.
The Green-winged Teal was elusive until mid-morning when it was found just right of the hide in toft shallows. Also seen, Shoveler, Wigeon, 3 Goldeneye, Yellow Wagtail, Jay and Sparrowhawk
By late morning Joe Public had got off there sofa’s and were out for there Easter constitution in there hundreds so it was time to do a runner managing 4 Long-tailed Tit and a brief view of a Hobby in toft shallows.
The rest of the afternoon was spent walking from Dunchurch to Woolscott in spring sunshine enjoying the peace and quiet – magic. Highlights were my first Garden Warbler of the year, 2 Whitethroat, 2 Grey Partridge, a very late Redwing for this area, 2 Sparrowhawk and 8 Buzzard while the more commoner species including Tree Sparrow’s were very busy doing what comes naturally at this time of year.

Richard