Back off hols.......patch tick!

August 16th - having been away on holiday for the past fortnight, it was nice to get back out on patch this morning.  As I arrived at around 7:30am, I could hear a Redshank calling - sure enough, a lone bird was looking particularly uncomfortable out on the spit.  It remained there for about 10 minutes calling constantly and then flew off high to the west.  Whilst watching the Redshank, I noticed a couple of Common Sands flying over the lake on the east side - apparently three birds were in the works bay later, but I didn't walk around that far.

I continued on to the south bank and was immediately struck by the number of tits and warblers that were foraging in the hedge line.  As I rounded the SW corner, I heard a familiar call and then saw a small brown bird with a long cocked tail fly from a pile of chopped down poplar sticks to the lakeside vegetation - it was a Cetti's Warbler, a rare bird for this site with just a handful of records, this being the first for quite a few years.  I took some record video on my phone showing the bird moving through the bushes and also capturing the call note, not great on here, much better on my home PC! Still, a patch tick for me, so well happy.

I continued along the path watching the birds moving through the hedge and along with lots of tits, I found a Lesser Whitethroat, a Whitethroat, around 20 Chiffchaffs and about 10 Blackcaps.  In one of the reed beds, an alarm call alerted me to a Sedge Warbler - another migrant, as these do not breed on site.  Back at the Cetti's location, a short while later and I could not find the bird, so it may have moved through, or possibly just gone quiet.  However, a Spotted Flycatcher flew into view and then quickly moved on.  A great morning for watching migrating birds.

Before I went away, the Common Terns were still much in evidence, but today there was just a single adult, so almost all gone for another year.  A Hobby was hunting for some time high up over the north side, and a Garden Warbler in the elders by the car park completed a nice species count of warblers, but otherwise that was it for this visit.