I made an early morning visit to Minwear and Toch woods this morning (before the dog-walkers etc arrived) for a second BBS session - a lovely cool, quiet time of day to be in the woods.
It has seemingly been a good spring for at least some of the breeding resident species. There were lots of independent juvenile song thrushes, blackbirds and robins around this morning. This made recording a bit more difficult as only adults are to be recorded for the BBS. Mistle thrushes have also seemingly had a good spring here, with higher numbers than usual along the transect route. Stock Doves were at a usual spot where they breed plus masses of wood pigeons throughout the area. They also seem to be having a good spring.
Other expected species included spotted flycatchers at a couple of likely breeding locations. Marsh tits were collecting invertebrate food from oak leaves for their young in a couple of places where they regularly breed. It was also nice to see wood warblers at a usual location, including one collecting food, presumably to feed its young in the nest. I hadn't noticed them along the transect route last year, nor during a previous visit on 23 April this year, but that date could have been a bit too early. Hopefully breeding will be successful. Willow warblers were noticeably absent though. Their population has been declining for some time and the future of small wood warbler population is uncertain.
A dipper was resting near its breeding location on the Eastern Cleddau and a pair of grey wagtails were feeding nearby. A pair of resident greylags are probably breeding near the Eastern Cleddau, and a male shelduck was on territory below Slebech reedbed, where lots of reed warblers were in full song as usual there.
Bob