Wollaton and Attenborough Sunday 9th May

These first pics are from Wollaton, a dryads saddle fungus and a doe Red Deer

After failing to locate them on friday night after a tip-off, i was taken to wollaton by Neil Glenn to view some nesting Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers. It was amazing to see them for the first time in my life, and had great views through neil's excellent telescope, with both the male and female popping in and out of the nest, clearly feeding their young. Here is a (poorly digiscoped) photo of the nest hole. There were also plenty of other birds about, including singing Nutchatch, several Swifts being mobbed by a Jackdaw and a Green Woodpecker calling.

We then made our way to Attenborough for the 'sunflower sunday' theme day with Notts Birdwatchers manning the hides.

There were plenty of birds to be seen, including some Blackcaps singing in the carpark and some Swifts flying over. At the visitor centre, the Coot brood had hatched, and there were some Reed Warblers singing in the reeds. Plenty of Swallows and Common Tern were flying over the lake too.

The path over the bridge held a few Whitethroats and a couple of Sedge Warblers, which were singing loudly, as we made our way to the Tower Hide. The main attraction here today was the wheatear field, which was heaving with warblers. It was mainly Whitethroats and Sedge Warblers, although there was a singing Grasshopper Warbler there too. Strangely, there were lots of Starlings around the field too, which i've not really seen there before, so it was good to see. Got a good sighting of a kingfisher in the distance sitting in the reeds on the small pond, which looked great in the sunshine.

Over the other side of the hide, the escaped Ross's goose was still there, seemingly pairing up with a greylag and there were a lot of reed warblers singing. Several ruddy duck were around the reedbeds too. Just in front of the hide, a blue tit was feeding and i managed to get a couple of shots.

On the tween pond there were a couple of Little Ringed Plover, as well as a Common Sandpiper, but little else of interest. Apparently a Dunlin had been on the island on the main pond but i dipped on that one!

Finally i made my way to the Kingfisher Hide, which was reasonably busy, but some good birds were about. A reed bunting was sat swaying in the reeds, and at the feeding station there were Tree Sparrows, Chaffinches and a couple of Stock Doves. A whitethroat was seen dipping in and out of the nettles too. I managed to spot a lesser whitethroat in a tree behind the kingfisher hide too, a first for this area.

I located Neil for my lift home, and on our way back spotted two Common Buzzards circling overhead. One was particularly pale, causing some speculation that it may have been a honey buzzard, but it was agreed it was just a pale common.

Had another great day at attenborough with a good 40+ species seen, and i met some nice folks too. Cheers! Have a Blackbird.