Sunday April 29

Cloudy with a light north-easterly breeze. Cold.

There are days when you get out of your car and within ten minutes of comparative silence you know its going to be an uninspiring day. The cool breeze and limited birdsong suggested that today would be one of those.

So, trying to be a little more upbeat, Dave and I quickly saw the Sedge Warbler that had been singing out of sight last weekend. At the pool the sound of trilling Little Grebes was confirmed as meaning that last week's bird had found a mate.

But the flash field, oh dear. Just six Lapwings, three Gadwalls, a brood of Mallard, and a few Coot and Moorhens. However, the ploughed field now hosted both a female and a male Wheatear.

Wheatear

We tried going off piste (we had half thought we had heard a tringa wader, perhaps a Redshank), so we walked to a couple of small pools just beyond the patch boundary. This only turned up another pair of Lapwings.

Back at the ridge field Dave spoke with a sense of urgency (always a good sign) and this had us craning our necks upwards to watch what turned out to be a circling Peregrine.

Peregrine

Finally, the dragonfly pools, which rarely contain anything unusual, came up trumps.

Gadwall

The pair of Gadwall were the first I have seen on the pond, and the small size of the pools allowed for a close photo.

So not the best visit, but as I like to tell myself, there's always something to see.