As I was collecting the recorder Friday morning, I could hear a Garden Warbler (98) singing away from some deep cover. This can be a tricky bird to get on the patch so a welcome bonus indeed. Birding Sunday morning around the area produced 1 booming Bittern early morning from the Stour Valley direction, 2 Nightingale were hear singing, 1 Greylag Goose, 8 Mute Swan, 1 Gadwall, 10 Mallard, 2 Grey Partridge, 3 Pheasant, 4 Stock Dove, 72 Woodpigeon, 1 Cuckoo (99) was heard calling, 4 Swift (100) were high up over Upstreet, 6 Moorhen, 2 Common Sandpiper (101) were on one of the new Islands on the new reservoir, a good bird to get here at any time, 1 Black headed Gull, 1 Mediterranean Gull (102) was heard calling and 57 Herring Gull. There were 4 Lesser Black backed Gull, 38 Cormorant, 2 Grey Heron, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Marsh Harrier, 1 Common Buzzard, 1 Great spotted Woodpecker, 2 Green Woodpecker, 2 Kestrel, 2 Jay, 1 Raven, 6 Blue Tit, 6 Great Tit, 4 Skylark, 7 Sedge Warbler, 15 Reed Warbler, 6 Swallow, 5 Chiffchaff, 4 Cetti's Warbler, 5 Long tailed Tit, 7 Blackcap, 1 Garden Warbler, 14 Whitethroat, 1 Mistle Thrush, 3 Song Thrush, 1 Wheatear, 4 Yellow Wagtail, 5 Chaffinch, 2 Bullfinch, 2 Linnet, 1 Goldfinch, 1 Yellowhammer and 11 Reed Bunting. 

Common Sandpiper

Yellow Wagtail

A bit of a catch up. 23 Sand Martin (94) and 1 Yellow Wagtail (95) were seen on the 14th April. A text yesterday from the owner Jed alerted me that he had recorded a Nightingale singing on the campsite so last night, I went down and put a recorder out nearby. I returned this morning at 6am and on opening the car door, I could immediately hear the song of a Nightingale (96). This is a good bird for the area with 5 records in the 10 years of recording. The recorder also picked up a Whimbrel (97) call flying over. 

Nightingale

I spent 2 hours at Nethergong this morning from 8am in calm sunny conditions and noted 1 Mute Swan, 2 Egyptian Geese, 4 Mallard, 1 Pheasant, 2 Stock Dove, 9 Woodpigeon, 5 Moorhen, 3 Lapwing displaying over the fields, 6 Black headed Gull, 65 Herring Gull, 1 Lesser Black backed Gull, 7 Cormorant, 1 Grey Heron, 2 Common Buzzard, 1 Great spotted Woodpecker and 1 Green Woodpecker. There were 6 Magpie, 1 Jay, 4 Jackdaw, 14 Rook, 8 Carrion Crow, 4 Blue Tit, 2 Great Tit, 6 Skylark, 3 Sedge Warbler (90), 2 Reed Warbler (91), 3 Swallow (92), 5 Chiffchaff, 1 Cetti's Warbler, 2 Long tailed Tit, 3 Blackcap, 4 Whitethroat (93), 4 Wren, 1 Mistle Thrush, 5 Song Thrush, 1 Blackbird, 3 Robin, 2 male Wheatear, 1 Dunnock, 2 Chaffinch, 1 Goldfinch and 1 Yellowhammer. 

Female

Male

Egyptian Geese