When I travelled to Ham Wall last Saturday to see the River Warbler the Jims couldn't come with me. My brother had a poor reaction to his first vaccine and had his second last Friday so was advised not to travel for a couple of days after so all week he's had one eye on the River warbler hoping I'd find the time to take him and yesterday I did just that.
We arrived just after 7am and made short work of the walk out towards the gathered birders. The bird was heard as we walked down and seen within seconds of stopping at the two wooden seats. For the next couple of hours it played to the crowd often sitting very close but obscured by vegetation before going missing and quiet for about thirty minutes between each display.
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| River Warbler |
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| River warbler |
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| River warbler |
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| Came close but was difficult to frame |
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| Very vocal |
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| Not a bird I expected to be ticking this year |
We saw Bittern, Cuckoo, Marsh Harriers and Great White Egrets whilst watching it before leaving at about 11am. On the way home we stopped to have a couple of hours wandering around Thursley Common where we had great views of a few Redstarts, a Woodlark, several Hobby and lot's of Dartford Warblers. Colin and his mates were in fine voice but we didn't make it to the Cuckoo field.
Jim has now picked up two lifers this year as he nudges closer to the 400. He's also dipped two this year with the Tawny Pipit and Eastern Subalpine Warbler and missed a couple as the earlier covid restrictions prevented us travelling together when I twitched the Mockingbird and American Herring Gull. If I have my math's right he's looking for three more for the 400 now which should be achievable this year with a planned trip to Porthgwarra hoping he can finally see some more Petrels and Shearwaters. Sadly there were no ticks for me this weekend but I still enjoyed the day out.
I currently have my lens with Canon for repair so used Jims Sigma for the above images. I'm hoping the repair will not be too expensive.
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