Sunday April 13

 To continue the story from last time, I duly visited Lakeside on Thursday and although the healthy wooded margins favoured by the Redditch town planners produced plenty of singing Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs, I didn't find anything unexpected.

As I was close to Arrow Valley Lake I called in for a quick look and saw that the Egretry contained at least nine Little Egrets.

Moth-trapping in the garden on Friday night added six species to the year list, but my twenty moths of eleven species contained no great surprises.

This morning I joined Dave at Morton Bagot, and my expectations were high. Perhaps too high. We found at least four Whitethroats singing from bramble patches and hedges in various places, but only glimpsed one of them. An apparent singing Sedge Warbler was eventually considered to be a Blackcap which added a remarkably accurate rendition of Sedge Warbler song to its normal song. I've heard mimicry in Blackcaps before, but never of Sedge Warbler.

This was from the hedge overlooking the flash field. There, the water level continues to look excellent for waders, but contained only a pair of Avocets, at least four Lapwings, three Snipe and three Green Sandpipers. Also present was at least 31 Teal, and best of all a squealing Water Rail, which we even (very briefly and distantly) saw. One or two Swallows and Sand Martins appeared sporadically while we were there, but try as we might we could not find any Wheatears, Redstarts or other passage migrants.

During the afternoon I decided it was high time I went to Earlswood to see the White Wagtails which have been present all week (apart from the early morning hour I spent there on Wednesday). This time they were very easy to see, exactly where you'd want them to be, on the shingle island off the causeway.

Female White Wagtail

Male White Wagtail

Also present, and new for the year for me, was at least one, probably two, Common Sandpipers and a Common Tern, plus the usual Little Ringed Plovers and an awful lot of people.

Common Sandpiper

Common Tern