Another returnee .....

 It was a rather cold and overcast start to my patch visit yesterday afternoon & i started by scanning the broad first.I noticed that the Gadwall numbers were up from 2 to 4! Also 2 x Tufted ducks  and the usual resting Common Snipe which were numbering 4. I was pleased to see the lonely Great crested grebe has finally found a mate. I watched as the "weed ceremony" started,they both regularly rising from under the water with some fine selections of weeds greeting each other in a vertical position , breast to breast. This was much to the interest from the nearby nesting Mute Swan.

Great Crested Grebes

 On to the spit and nothing but a Moorhen and then 4x noisey Oystercatchers dropped in to liven things up. I walked round to the marshes & counted 3x Meadow pipits and a few Gold finches over head. On the muddy scrape the 2 x Canada geese we're still present & then among the vegetation 2 x Lrp s appeared . They were busy doing there  'foot tapping' , in search for food.

LRPs doing the 'footloose'

 I carried on making my way back to the van and was stopped in my tracks by a sound of a returning warbler - a Sedge warbler ! Beating my record from last year by a week. I watched it sulking low in the reeds never showing well but enjoyed listening to that familiar sound  of which o so reminds me of summer days here.
 I made my way back ,hearing my 4th Cettis of the afternoon and 3rd Chiffchaff both from the trees along the railway line.
  Happy Birding,
   Shaky