Monday 6 April 2020

Landshipping - Garden Warblers


Our shorter walk to Landshipping Quay this afternoon was general quiet: there were 16 shelducks in a usual spot on the Eastern Cleddau; 70+ teal at the Quay (mostly in Millars Park pool); the local greylag pair was noisily flying between Eastern Cleddau and Daugleddau; and a single kite drifted over the area – a fairly regular bird here. We could only find a single greenshank and just seven redshanks today, perhaps most of yesterday’s new arrivals had already moved on? 

Part of yesterday's flock of 30+ redshanks at Landshipping Quay
The walk back along one of the footpaths was worthwhile – producing our first garden warblers of the spring. One was heard singing, then another also started rattling away in typical hurried fashion. Both were deep inside a large patch of willow scrub in a dingle next to the path. Although garden warblers are more locally distributed than blackcaps, where they do occur, they seem to favour patches of quite dense scrub on woodland edges, at least that seems to be the case in this general area.