A walk at Faxfleet this morning gave me my first views this year of the returned female Montagu's Harrier. Obviously at some distance across the river, it flew briefly in the RSPB Blacktoft Sands area. Four Marsh Harriers were seen along with a Peregrine and Kestrel there too. At Faxfleet, Sedge Warblers are singing well and with less wind today, a total of five Bearded Tits flitted over the reedbed but not too close. 4 pairs of Little Grebe are very noisy and the Coots have produced several young. 6 Swifts were nice, accompanied by both Swallow and House Martin and one of three Whitethroats made a good photo! The Cetti's Warbler is also present. Yellow Wagtails pass over fairly regularly and I have found, the approach road to Faxfleet has yellow wagtails in the fields on either side of the road. On returning home, I found a female Blackcap having a bath in the garden. There are two singing males here now, so hopefully some breeding nearby. I've been able to see our young Robins but they're keeping well hidden in our bushes. The female has returned to the same nest for a second brood which is great. Young Greenfinches are also about and a Common Buzzard flew North late afternoon.
My plans for today were to go to Spurn, in view of recent good migrants. However, the arrival of a Thrush Nightingale at Sammy's Point seems to have caused some problems between birders, photographers (birders with cameras?) and the Obs Team. I'm not one for expressing views normally and shouldn't have to regarding an enjoyable hobby, but some of the advice/comments on Twitter regarding 'disturbance' and 'welfare' may be slightly over-zealous. I have 'attended' a Thrush Nightingale twice at Spurn, both occasions involved watching a bush in excess of an hour, and eventually seeing an eye! This can be frustrating for the watcher and does, undoubtedly lead to people wanting to get closer, or coax the bird out by some means. On the other hand, Thrush Nightingale is an extremely skulking bird even when singing and 'may' be preening, sleeping etc, regardless of it's surrounding entourage. To my mind, often the rarer the bird is, the less concerned with human activity it is. The Great Snipe at Spurn, walking between people. The Lincs Steppe Grey Shrike, sitting on a scope! Remember, the bird doesn't know it's rare - that's our perception. With disturbance and welfare still in mind, it does seem strange that They will encourage us to line up, clap our hands, tangle a bird up in a net, hang it up in a bag for quarter of an hour, prior to pushing a ring on its leg! Comments are closed.
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