A Lovely Sunny April Afternoon at Upton Warren

After a month devoid of birding for various reasons, we made a welcome return to Upton Warren on Thursday. It was great to be out and the weather was marvellous although a tad cool in a couple of the hides.

We visited all parts of the reserve starting with the Flashes mainly to get our first views of the returning Avocets,

and Little Ringed Plover,

The Shelduck were also looking splendid in the sun.

The birds today all stayed quite distant from the hide so good photo opportunities were limited. Other distant birds at the Flashes were Stock Dove, Gadwall, Shoveler, Lapwing, Mallard,Tufted Duck, Black-headed Gull, Canada Geese, Coot and a couple of Oystercatchers. A couple of Buzzards put in an appearance over the far hill side, briefly causing some excitement among the rest, but that was about it.

So we wandered (drove, much too muddy along the Salwarp!) over to the Moors Pools.
We started at the New Hide, this was pretty quiet, just some Tufted Duck, Coot and Mallard on the water, Blue and Great Tits, Chaffinch and a Bullfinch on the feeders. We sauntered (trying to use different verbs instead of 'walked'!!) up to the Lapwing hide and had coffee (this was our second)
Seeing a couple of Lesser Redpoll on the feeders at Lifestyles on the way.

From the Lapwing Hide we added a single Cormorant, some Teal, another pair of Oystercatchers, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe and a young Fox!, (gave a pair of Canada Geese a bit of a scare, before disappearing back into the reeds). We eventually found after much scanning two Snipe in the scrubby area in front of the Sand Martin box, that made our day as it's one of our favourite birds.

We now strolled back, purchasing a couple of Goose Eggs on the way and continued to the concrete hide. Here a Gadwall gave me a couple of nice shots,

as did a Dunnock

and a Reed Bunting

Finally from the tower hide a pair of Tufted Duck gave me a nice-ish photo,

So a very nice afternoon totalling 43 species in all. I haven't mentioned them all of course. We then completed a lovely afternoon with Afternoon Tea at Webbs, courtesy of my cousin Jane and family, who bought us this for a significant birthday!