I headed back up to Fen Drayton this morning with a couple of hours free time I was hoping to find a Turtle Dove as they'd given me the slip on Friday.
Arriving at 6am I walked out along the track north of Ferry Lagoon and could hear Turtle Doves calling straight away. I managed two views of a couple of different birds but always distant. Like Friday Willow Warbler, Garden Warbler and Whitethroats were a constant back drop and a few Cuckoo were heard and seen. A single Cattle Egret flew over Ferry Lagoon towards Drayton and as I watched a Kingfisher a surprise Bittern flew over towards the car park area. News broke of a Red-backed Shrike being found along the entrance track so I headed off to see if I could connect with that and it didn't take long to get good scope views of the male bird as it hunted along the bottom of a distant hedge and whilst watching I had Grey Partridge in the field and a single Hobby over. Yellow Hammer and Skylark added to the chorus before I drove back to reserve for another hour watching the many warblers to be enjoyed here.
The evening saw me take the Jims around to Chobham Common for our annual Nightjar fix. To our surprise the Jarring started nice and early with the first bird heard at 9.15pm before sunset. We enjoyed several birds jarring some calling some wing clapping and had views of three birds. We also saw double figures of Woodcock as they flew across calling between 9.15 and 10pm. Three Dartford Warblers were heard and seen around 8pm too to add to the enjoyment of the evening visit to the area around Monument Car park.
Year list now 209 after todays additions.
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