spring sibilatrix

Made my first real spring visit to Buckton on Sunday. Conditions looked very promising with SE winds and early rain. It was immediatly obvious that an arrival had taken place with each patch of bare earth containing Wheatears and the bushes holding Willow Warblers in abundance. I picked up other migrants including Whinchat, several Yellow Wagtails, four Whitethroat, two fly-over Shelduck (scarce here) and good numbers of Swallows.

The highlight came early afternoon when stood looking at the scrape from the viewing screen I caught sound of a brief trill in the sycamores just behind me. A few moments later I heard it much clearer and it had to be a Wood Warbler in partial song. Eventually i saw a movement almost at eye level and lifting the bins revealed a bird akin to a lemon sherbet sweet (thanks Jen!). The bird remained in the same place all day and was showing well mid afternoon, although proved hard to photograph. It represented the 2nd Buckton record after a late individual on September 30th 2007.

Final day totals included 35 Wheatear and 30 Willow Warbler, thoroughly enjoyable!