Sunny Sunday

Sunday 15th April 2007
I headed for Frampton failry early this morning, there was a lot of thick patchy fog around, but along the lanes I saw a Brown Hare and a Fox. At Frampton I met up with Mike and later Jake. From the viewing platform in Green Lane, Mike eventually found the drake Garganey asleep on the WWT 100-Acre at 9am, also the Temminck's Stint still with four Little Stints, ten Dunlin, three Little Egrets, two Cetti's Warbler calling, a Little Grebe, a Kingfisher (and another seen earlier on the canal) and at least four Reed Buntings. We also heard one or two Whimbrel but couldn't locate them. A pale Buzzard was perched on a fence seen from Splatt Bridge. Back home in the garden on a very warm afternoon again (at least 24oc again) Willow Warbler, Blackcap and Chiffchaff could all be heard singing. Also an Orange-tip butterfly in the garden. Linda and I took a walk along the canal later. South of The Pilot there was a Raven and I photographed one of the many singing Chiffchaffs (see below). A Mandarin flew up the canal towards the Pilot and over the bridge, and later we saw a pair of Mandarin just north of the bridge on the canal (photo: Paul Masters).

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