Wednesday 23 April 2008

Sylvia City!

Seemed to be stacks of Sylvia warblers moving slowly up the watercourse today. I saw lots more Blackcap than usual, many of them just feeding away indicating they'd perhaps just arrived. The now familiar territorial singers were all blasting out their pretty amazing repertoire. Whitethroats were also very evident today and again migrant birds moving through, every now and again you would hear a burst of that lovely scratchy call. A very smart looking Lesser Whitethroat was new today on the North Section in an area that held one last year and on the Southern Section just north of Bluebank a couple of Tree Pipit which are always good to see. Same thing with Hirundines particularly Swallows, small groups in waves often accompanied by the odd martin. I think the breeding pair are back at Kings Lock as there was a frenzy of arial activity with excited chattering as a/the pair chased each other around - bearing in mind their arduous journey all the way to and then back from Africa I'm surprised they weren't doing loop de loops!

Funniest thing today was a rival, note rival Great-spotted Woodpecker that has taken it upon himself to drum on one of the metal pylons. This isn't actually as daft as it sounds as the drum roll resonates off the metal and seems to be greatly and oddly amplified. It's driving the breeding pair nuts and there is such a response I'm surprised half the trees are still standing - Territorial Evolution in the making?

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