A scarce visitor at last

For the first time this spring I found we were birding on a reasonably nice morning, not much wind and a  temperature which was about the seasonal norm. The birds responded accordingly. As Dave arrived I could report a distantly calling Cuckoo, and singing Common Whitethroat, while Dave had followed up a "tack" call in a hedge by the road which proved to have been made by a Lesser Whitethroat.

Text messages from the last couple of days spoke of Curlew and Redshank being present on the flashes, and we set off in that direction. We then got a call from John. He had seen a Curlew and two Whimbrel, which seemed to drop in to the flash as he stood watching.

We put on a spurt, and on arrival found he was quite right, two Whimbrel and a Curlew were strutting around the field, eventually reaching the back flash.

Two Whimbrels dwarfed by a Curlew and two Greylags

My camera is still partially functional and I took some record shots notwithstanding the birds were about as far away as they could be. I was chuffed with the Curlew, but the Whimbrels were the real stars. This is the third record for the site, the previous ones being a singleton on April 30 2007, and three on Apr 24 2010. John was phoning around to alert others, and learned from Mark Islip that there had been two at Arrow Valley Lake this morning which had flown off. This is just five miles west of us, so they were surely the same birds.

Scanning the rest of the flashes we noted there were now just four Teal, and a pair of Little Ringed Plovers. Dave and I headed off, and eventually found three female Wheatears, about six Meadow Pipits, two fly-over Redpolls, a singing Blackcap, and a singing Willow Warbler my last year tick of the day.

I made a brief attempt to find Dave's Lesser Whitethroat on the way home, but it was not performing.

A quick post-script. I was at Compton Verney yesterday where the birding highlight of a glorious spring day was a distant Red Kite.