18th June

I popped down to the magic garden this afternoon to look for butterflies but the sun was at best intermittent and I only managed four Green-veined White. As I got close to the lake a Cormorant flapped heavily off the water and then I heard the unmistakeable chugging song of a Reed Warbler.

The bird was singing from the reeds at the north end of the island. As I searched for this bird I heard a second in the reeds along the bank! This is the first multiple sighting I have had in the village. These birds weren’t here on Thursday so are they very late migrants?  As usual they were very hard to pick out but I spotted the one bird in the reeds and managed to get two quick shots off before it disappeared back out of sight.

Their songs included some excellent mimicry with Reed Bunting, Blue Tit, Blackcap and Starling all in there whilst the one bird started each of its songs with a pitch perfect impression of a Swallow’s alarm note. If one or both of these birds stayed on to breed it would be the first confirmed nesting since the late 1940s.  

Near here I could hear the calls of young birds from an old apple tree , I put the lens to the hole and took one shot. The result is this chiaroscuro image of young Blue tits.