Attenborough, 2nd April

With reports of Sandwich Tern, Chiffchaff, Stonechat, Pintail and LRP on Monday, I headed out to Attenborough Tuesday morning to see if I could connect with any of these birds. Unfortunately, as seems to be the norm at the moment, I failed to get any of my target birds, although I wasn't particularly surprised about the tern, as I didn't expect it to stick around. It would have been nice to get my first Pintail for the site though, as I have failed on seeing these on several occasions here.

I began at the visitor centre where I got some nice shots of Red-crested Pochards, feeding amongst the usual waterfowl. Crossing the bridge the first of many Dunnocks was singing from the scrub, and over on the Tween Pond scrapes were a pair of Shelduck amongst the gulls. A scan of the wheatear field failed to produce the reported LRP or Stonechat, so I carried on round to the river, stopping briefly at the Kingfisher Hide, to check Cottages Flash.

I saw an Oystercatcher on the flash while searching for the Tern, and it flew over my head towards clifton pond, before turning back and landing in the riverside field over the river again. Little else was about on the flash or the river, but there were very good numbers of Dunnock singing in the scrub on the Attenborough side of the river, with birds flying everywhere and seemingly singing from every bush.

Some Goosander and Goldeneye were present on the Main Pond, but despite searching, there were no Pintails present, so I headed down to the Delta Hide to see if they may have relocated there. Sadly not, though a Little Grebe showed very well, feeding just in front of the hide, and a Cetti was singing from the reedbed. One more Oystercatcher flew overhead too.

I finished off walking back to the tower hide, via the works pond and the village, but nothing exceptional was seen on route. On the wheatear field were several Teal and a very showy Water Rail, feeding out in the open for ages. I didn't actually go into the Tower hide as it was chock full of birders, all looking at a Bittern which was putting on a show on the near bank. I'd just missed it swallowing a large pike, but I still managed to get some stunning views of the bird, but no decent photos, before it climbed the wire fence surrounding the reeds and disappeared to digest its meal. Thats the 3rd time I've seen a Bittern there in my past 3 visits to the reserve, so not bad going really!

So I didn't see any of my target species, but still had a great time watching some winter birds on my first birding trip of the 'British Summertime'. Just waiting now for the southerly winds to come to provide some warmth, and more importantly, Warblers!