Thursday April 27

In this relatively chilly spring I have been distracted by family business, leaving me less purposeful than usual. 

For instance I was aware that a Grasshopper Warbler had been singing just half a kilometre from our front door at Ipsley Alders, but when I finally chose to visit early on Wednesday morning the cupboard was bare. No Gropper, and not a lot else. A Willow Warbler and a fly-over Redpoll hardly made the early start worthwhile.

This morning my plan was to head for Mappleborough Green Flash, and eventually I did so. But it was more of the same; Willow Warblers, two Little Ringed Plovers, Whitethroats (heard), Lesser Whitethroat (heard), and the resident Cetti's Warbler, which I at least saw (naked eye) as it flew from where it had just shouted into my earhole.

Willow Warbler

Little Ringed Plover

Sandwiched between the visits to these two localities was a year-tick at Earlswood. Not the Bar-tailed Godwit nor the Whimbrel, both of which I learned had been spotted by John Oates as they flew over this morning. It was a Mediterranean Gull he found on the West Midlands County side of the border which runs along Wood Lane next to Engine Pool. A stonking summer plumaged adult no less. Why is it so low, one might say buried, in this post? 

Well I arrived in good time, strolled out of the Wood Lane carpark, spotted the bird in the horse paddocks and attempted a record shot. Unfortunately the paddocks were divided by lines of tape popular with equestrian types, and the gull was behind several rows of the stuff. So I got a blurred image. I tried again, with a similar result. Then, just as I pondered what to do, it took off and headed north-east leaving me with this:

Fuzzy Med Gull

I shouldn't complain. At least I saw it. But it was a splendid bird and the shot does it no justice at all.

Also present was at least one Whitethroat, and over the reservoir the usual hirundines and Common Terns. However I didn't have time to walk around even one lake, so I headed to Mappleborough Green (see above).