☔️10C Monday 9th April 2018 ~ One of the many pleasures of living aboard a narrowboat, particularly at this time of year, is listening to the start of the dawn chorus from the comfort of your bed! However, this morning it was interrupted by the unmistakable call of a
Whimbrel, which sent me scurrying to the hatch but sadly it had already continued on through.
I needed to be at the local garage for 8:30am for the wife's MOT so only had the briefest search of the adjacent fields for the earlier Whimbrel or indeed anything else of interest. The distant call of an
Oystercatcher over towards Napton Reservoir,
Yellowhammer and
Chiffchaff birds of note.
After breakfast, I began at Napton Reservoir where I bumped into Peter Finden and then Richard Mays and Dave Cox, who I spent the next 45 minutes with. A single
Shelduck,
Blackcap and a couple of
Chiffchaffs, plus a
Raven over harassing a
Buzzard, a dozen or so
Swallow and a couple of
House Martins were the best on offer.
 |
| Record shot of my first Yellow Wagtail of the year! |
An influx of
Yellow Wagtails at Draycote Water was my next stop, where I was onto my first of the year almost immediately along Farborough Bank. I didn't hang around for too long before heading off to Brandon Marsh where there was a possible
Arctic Tern.
 |
| Arctic Tern ~ Brandon Marsh |
Quite a tricky bird to ID this one (
Common/Arctic) but after much deliberation by most of the Warwickshire birding community, all seemed to eventually agree on
Arctic Tern!
