Reeling in the ears

Early mornings do pay off!!! On his way to a survey site Dave dropped me off near my old local patch Pendinas, a local nature reserve on a steep hillside consisting of scrub, brambles, hawthorns, willows and gorse. As I walked along the cycle path towards the reserve I came across singing blackcap (seem to be everywhere at the moment) and numerous whitethroat. As I approached Pendinas the sedge warblers became more and more abundant when I heard the distant reeeling of a grasshopper warbler on the hillside. Not having any illusions about being able to track down the bird I carried on to see if the world's tamest sedge warbler was back in his tree - and he was, singing away and not bothered by anyone approaching. All of a sudden that distant reeling became louder and was not so far anymore. I went back, entered Pendinas through the gate and soon approached the brambles from which the reeling came. And there it was, a little brown bird walking clumsily through the scrub with its beak wide open. And to make things even better it came out and continued its singing in the open. At first I was so excited about these amazing views, that I couldn't even think about taking photos. But then I calmed downed, managed to compose myself and got plenty of shots. I enjoyed the spectacle a little while longer before moving on. Also noteworthy from this site were a pair of stonechat, chiffchaff, willow warbler, linnet, a male wheatear and a common sandpiper down by the river. When I met up with Dave I took him to the gropper spot, where we had three reeling individuals.

 

 

Moving onto Borth, through the grim bank holiday traffic, we parked at our usual spot and walked down the Leri. The reedbeds were full to bursting point with singing sedge and reed warblers, as well as resplendent male reed buntings, whilst swallows and martins swirled about above our heads. Once again we were treated to the sound of 2 groppers reeling here. Most exciting of all was coming across this sunbasking adder on the footpath, who showed no fear at our eye level inspection of him.
To cap the day off nicely, 2 common sands were on the river, whilst a couple of wheatear and a cracking whinchat saw us heading home happy and slightly suntanned.