David had visited Stanford
Reservoir this morning and had a Grasshopper Warbler singing and so Roger and I
decided we would pay an evening visit.
We had driven through some
heavy drizzle on route but it was dry when we arrived and remained so for the
whole visit. After parking we scanned
the inlet but like my last visit there were just Lapwing, Black-headed Gull and
Carrion Crow on the mud. A Little Egret
flew in and landed in the mouth of the stream and there were good numbers of
hirundine over the water that included Sand Martin, Swallow and House Martin.
We set off along the path on
the Leicestershire bank and walked as far as the style and then stopped to view
the reservoir. We hadn’t seen too much
as we had walked out with a single Whitethroat being the best. We spent quite some time scanning the
reservoir and eventually found an Oystercatcher on the Northamptonshire bank,
four Little Ringed Plovers on the islands and a Green Sandpiper on the
Leicestershire side towards the dam.
There were even more hirundines over the water and a good number of
Swift were feeding over the trees on the Northamptonshire side where a Blackcap
could be heard.
We went back to where we
thought David had seen the Grasshopper Warbler this morning, where we had a
Chiffchaff, another Whitethroat and at least two Sedge Warbler. We spent quite some time there but there was
no sign of the hoped for Grasshopper Warbler.
It was after 09:00 and with the light not good we decided to call it a
day and started to walk back to the car.
As we walked back I heard the Grasshopper Warbler but wasn’t sure where
it was and so we returned to our original position but there was no sign and I
began to wonder if I did hear it. As we
made our way back again I heard it again and realised it was further along the
path and so moved towards the car park.
It continued singing but appeared to be moving and we finished back
where we had spent most of the time looking for it. It had moved several hundred yards, which I
thought was a bit unusual for a Grasshopper Warbler but having reached the
original area it didn’t really move any further but continued singing intermittently. My hearing isn’t what it used to be and I was
having difficulty knowing where it was with Roger not hearing it at all. We then spent quite some time scanning the
bushes without any success, although I was certain I saw it on one occasion but
only very briefly. Whilst we were trying
to locate the Grasshopper Warbler we heard a Tawny Owl call on several
occasions from the wood to our left.
With the light now fading fast
we made our way back to the car and left at around 21:40.
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