A morning in Northwest Leicestershire - April 15, 2015

I had made several visits to various sites for Lesser Spotted Woodpecker without success this year and this morning David and I were making another attempt to see one.  A male had been reported and we were hoping to connect with it this morning despite Roger drawing a blank yesterday afternoon.  As we approached the area where the bird had been seen David said I have got it and I then saw it disappear behind the trunk of a silver birch from where it started drumming.  After each period of drumming its head would appear around the side of the trunk and in moving off the path slightly I was able to see most of the bird and we then watched it drumming for about ten minutes.  It didn’t call at all during our visit and eventually flew off and disappeared to the east.  This was my first sighting of this species since February 29^th, 2012 when I saw a male and female in Swithland Wood.  We saw few other birds during our short visit but did hear a couple of Chiffchaffs, at least two Willow Warblers, a Blackcap and a Nuthatch.

Eighteen Ring Ouzels had been reported at Warren Hills yesterday and only being about five minutes away we went and took a look.  Initially we couldn’t find any but we did eventually find four males and a female in the lower pastures.  There were also two Willow Warblers singing and two Red-legged Partridge in one of the fields.

David had been to Watermead Country Park yesterday and had seen a Grasshopper Warbler and heard Whitethroat and Reed Warbler and so we decided to call there before going home.  We arrived on site at around 09:00 and the gate to the nature reserve area had been unlocked and we were able to get access to the double-decker hide.  A Cetti’s Warbler sang and there was a Reed Warbler singing in the first stand of reeds although we couldn’t see it and as we approached the river David could hear the Grasshopper reeling.  We couldn't see it and David suggested we should go into the hide and as we approached it Roger came out as he had seen us at the river edge.  We all went back into the hide but there was still no sign of the Grasshopper Warbler, although David could hear it singing occasionally.  I went outside again to at least try and hear it but hadn’t been out too long when David called to say they had it on view.  I went back into the hide and got reasonable scope views of the bird perched and singing from the tall vegetation.  I could see that it was singing but Roger and I still couldn’t hear it and it eventually flew and disappeared into the vegetation.  We were also saw two Little Ringed Plovers, a Green Sandpiper and three Redshanks on the flash in front of the hide.  We eventually came out and Roger went off to give the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker another go whilst David and I went to view King Lear’s Lake but there was very little on the lake although David thought he heard a Whitethroat sing and so we went a little further around the path and had nice views of my first Whitethroat of the year.  As we walked back seven Sand Martins flew over the lake and we heard a couple of Chiffchaffs, four Willow Warblers, four Blackcaps and a Sedge Warbler before we departed.

It had been an excellent morning with two really good birds in terms of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and Grasshopper Warbler and Reed Warbler and Whitethroat had also been year ticks with Whitethroat taking me to 200 for the year.