Tag: Sand Martin

A good afternoon’s birding or, how I was proved wrong yet again (twice)!

OK, not an afternoon of birding, but a couple of hours at Daventry Country Park on a grey, chilly and blustery Saturday afternoon.  It was the one afternoon when rain wasn’t forecast though, so I thought I would go and check on my terns (more on those in another blog post).  I also hoped to hear the sedge warbler that I heard last weekend (the first time I have heard one at the Country Park).

After the excitement of Brandon Marsh, I was prepared for a quiet couple of hours watching the terns go by.  And, by and large that’s what I got.  Most of the black-headed gulls have gone (taking the Little Gulls that I missed last week with them) but there is a flotilla of Lesser Black Backed and Herring gulls at the far end of the water.  Most of the ducks have gone too (although I did see some teal last week) and the cormorants are much reduced in number (down to just five or six from ten times that number in the winter).

I spent most of  my time watching the terns, but having house martins and swallows zooming by, and twittering up high.  I got some really good views again through my scope.  Following my last blog when I mentioned that Brandon Marsh was the only place that I saw sand martins, I now have to make a retraction, because I saw at least one in the groups dashing about above the water.  It definitely didn’t have the white rump, was smaller than the swallows and was a lovely warm brown when it turned to flash the upper side of its wings into the sunlight – noticeable different to the smart midnight blue of the house martins and swallows.  A new for me on my local patch.

It was whilst I was watching these that I happened to notice a very yellow looking bird flapping about along the dam.  It looked like a wagtail, but it moved to fast for me to find it in my bins.  Then I saw three yellow birds on the path – they were so yellow that I thought at first they were yellowhammers – but they were scared away by some children pedalling towards them before I could get a good look.  They looked and sounded like wagtails though – probably grey wagtails as I’d seen these on quite a few occasions at the Country Park.

I also fancied I heard a skylark in the distance so I thought I would have a look around the fields on the south side of the water (and also see if I could see the wagtails along the dam).  No joy on the wagtails, but I did hear something singing in the distance that could be a skylark – I hope so.  I heard another call coming from the fields that was unfamiliar – then I saw a yellow bird fly upwards and back down into the crops – yellowhammer?  I stood watching for a while, then the yellow bird flew up out of the field.  I was in luck – it landed at the top of a tree near the path and didn’t fly off when I came close.  I got a good look, definitely a wagtail – long tail, but very yellow underneath, long black legs, olive-green on top and with an olive eye stripe.  I was hopeful that this might be a yellow wagtail.  I checked the RSPB website when I got home, which also has a recording of its call which I listened to for quite a while when stood under the tree.  It was definitely a yellow wagtail – a lifetime first for me and in my local patch as well!  How cool is that.

On my way back home I bumped into a lady who asked me if I had seen anything interesting.   We chatted about the tern rafts and I mentioned that the swifts would be back soon – I usually see the first ones about the 5th or 6th May.  WRONG!  I was wandering out of the Country Park and looked up to see 22 swifts coming over the trees (yes, I did count them).  I am hopeful this means that warm weather is on its way!

Brandon Marsh Blog part two

So, the reason why I often find myself disappointed with Brandon Marsh is because on my first visit there I was spoilt with fantastic views of kingfishers and a hobby from the Carlton Hide.  I haven’t seen a hobby there since and it’s a while since I spotted a kingfisher there (I have in fact seen both of these at Daventry Country Park).  The Carlton hide should offer fantastic views of waders and water birds.  But it doesn’t.  Last time I went the bird count was similar to that at the Teal Pool Hide – aka nothing.  So I was set for disappointment when I opened the shutters (there was no one else there).  But, today, my view was filled with house martins and swallows darting about in front of the hide, chasing insects over the reed beds, twittering to each other and performing aerial acrobatics.

Carlton Hide

 

View from the Carlton Hide

I saw another whitethroat at close range and saw my first black cap of the year – a male (I’d heard plenty, but not seen any so far). There were reed or sedge warblers about – I think sedge and I got a good view of a female reed bunting darting about in the reeds – as they do I suppose.  There was a cuckoo up here too, although I still couldn’t see it and it sounded some distance away.

In the last few years they have extended the reserve, the latest addition being some screens up at Newlands, overlooking more of the reed bed.  Or at least that was what was there last time, now they have a new hide!

Ted Jury Hide

The Ted Jury Hide

These are the views left and right through the screens:

Ted Jury Hide-2 Ted Jury Hide-3

But when I went in and opened up the shutters, oh my, what a view, it nearly took my breath away:

Ted Jury Hide-4There was a constant burble from the house martins hunting in the reed beds in even larger numbers, but there wasn’t a lot else that I could see.  Still, it is early days and these things tend to take some time to settle down.  I waited a while in case an osprey turned up – after all they’d kindly erected a platform for him to land on, but not surprisingly, he didn’t show.  Still there were plenty of house martins and sand martins to keep me mesmerised.  I realised that the sand martins were much easier to differentiate than I thought, even at speed (theirs, not mine).  They don’t have the white rump that their cousins the house martins have and they also make a very different sound, more squawky than the tweeting of the house martins.  I hate to say it, but a hobby would have had good hunting round there today.

I worried about getting back before they closed the gates, but couldn’t resist going towards one of the hides and out towards a different part of the reed bed in the hope that I might find a Cettis warbler as I’ve heard them round that side most years.  However, on this occasion they disappointed and I didn’t hear anything.   I wandered further along and met a couple of gentlemen who were going the opposite way and told me that there was always a grasshopper warbler singing in the nearby marshy areas if I just stopped and listened.  A grasshopper warbler – that would be a lifetime first for me.  Although, going by my sedge / reed warbler dilemma the chances of me actually recognising it were close to zero.  Still I stood and listened.  And, I heard a sedge warbler or was it a reed warbler.  I waited and then I heard it, very faint, but definitely, something that really did sound like a stridulating grasshopper.  Amazing – what a day.

I didn’t hear it again, although I wandered along the path by the reed bed.  I did hear other warblers and, some sounded less scratchy than the sedge warblers I’d been listening to and they didn’t seem to stop to start again.  Hearing them side by side I am pretty sure that I did hear a reed warbler, so, although I still haven’t seen one, I have now heard one.  After all, the whole point of warblers is their song.