With reports of three Ring
Ouzels in the north west of the county I decided to go to Charlie’s Mill to see
if there were any migrants there.
However when I arrived the mist had turned into a thick fog and so I
drove the short distance to Swithland Reservoir. I stopped briefly at the southern section but
saw very little and soon moved to the dam.
It was still very murky but it was possible to see across the reservoir
but there was very little on the water mainly Tufted Ducks and Great Crested
Grebes and a few Mallard and a single Mute Swan. There was a party of martins that kept
disappearing into the mist but I was eventually satisfied that they were all
Sand Martins. A Peregrine was observed
in their favourite tree but it didn’t stay too long and the only other birds of
note were a single Chiffchaff and Nuthatch, both only heard and surprisingly a
Buzzard soaring amongst the martins.
I moved onto Cropston
Reservoir but as usual there was very little just a few Tufted Duck and Great
Crested Grebe.
As it was still quite misty I
decided to go into Swithland Wood. I
checked out the holly tree for Tawny Owl and the greyish bird was sitting in
full view and showing quite nicely.
Another nice surprise was a pair of Grey Wagtail on the small stream and
there were several Nuthatches calling, with one being seen and three Chiffchaffs
were heard.
As the mist appeared to have
cleared a little I returned to Copt Oak but it was still as bad there and got
even worse whilst I had my lunch and so I moved off to Cossington Meadows.
After parking up on the road I
walked to Hobley Lake at the northern edge of the reserve. The mist wasn’t too bad here but it was still
swirling around and felt quite cool in the northeast breeze. There were a couple of Goosander on Upper
Marsh and two Oystercatchers were on the island on Hobley Lake and two Little
Ringed Plovers ran along the edge of the far shore. I suddenly became aware that there quite a
few Sand Martins were overhead and thought one was a Swallow as they passed
over the trees. I eventually had a least
ten Swallow and there were at least fifty Sand Martins. Two year-ticks to end what had been a rather
dreary day with the pretty dismal weather.
Seeing Swallows for the first time has always been special for me as it
suggests spring migration is really underway and expectations really begin to
rise on new birds for the year.
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