April 20th 2011

Early morning visit with Chris to the Grandborough valley produced 2 Meadow Pipit, 2 Willow Tit, 3 Whitethroat, Blackcap, 6 Linnet, plenty of Yellowhammer and a Red-legged Partridge. A female Wheatear was near the junction of hill road and the A426.
The fishermen are back at Draycote Water with an open day and with the warm weather already motivating the flies we only stayed long enough for a walk out to farborough spit which produced 4 Wheatear, 2 Yellow Wagtail, 3 Whitethroat, White Wagtail and the 3 Swift over the visitor centre which equaled my second earliest arrival date for this species. Unfortunately the 6 House Martins checking out last years nest site were wary of the disturbance from the fishermen so will have to wait and see if they pluck up the courage to start building.
Napton on the Hill was quiet apart from Sparrowhawk and Cuckoo which flew past us over the church and the poor hazy conditions meant very little else could be seen so moved on to Napton Reservoir where there were Raven, Sedge, Reed and Cetties Warbler.

Richard