20th April '09 Attenborough Nature Reserve

Warm, sunny, slight breeze.

Attenborough Nature Reserve

View towards Attenborough Church.

This is the best day of the year, for the weather and sightings. I'd barely crossed the footbridge from the carpark and within 10yards of scrub sighted, with decent photos to prove it, Common Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler, Blackcap and Reed Bunting. On the riverside path I'd been told a Grasshopper Warbler had been heard but not seen. I spotted a little brown job in the thick scrub and couldn't believe my eyes or my luck, the Grasshopper Warbler! I waited possibly 20 minutes for another sighting and was rewarded with a quick hop it made into more thicker scrub yards away. I didn't see it again for another hour when just as I was about to go there it was yards from me fully exposed. I had it on camera quicker than you can blink. It remained there for two more shots including an inflight one as it changed position. It was still in the open as I rattled off three more. Without doubt that is my most satisfying sighting to-date. Now for the Cettis Warbler!

What a picture.

Grasshopper Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Common Whitethroat, Blackcap, Reed Bunting, Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Wheatear, Buzzard, Wren, Common Tern, Oyster Catcher, Gadwall, Shoveler.