Today, Jayne and I made our annual visit to RSPB St Aidan's to add a few new birds to this year's Year List.
Our first new bird, Cetti's Warbler (121) was added as soon as we got out of the car, and was heard throughout our visit. Going to the Visitors' Hut, we asked about the Little Owls (122) that are often to be seen around that area. The member of staff there soon found one for us.
Little Owl
We carried on walking around the reserve, and soon managed to find our first Black-necked Grebes (123) of the day, with 4 together.
Black-necked Grebes
Whilst watching the grebes, we heard the first "booming" Bitterns (124) of the day, and, much to our surprise, a singing Sedge Warbler (125), which seemed quite early. The last two birds seen were Bearded Tit (126), with 4 seen, our first here, and Sand Martin (127) with a minimum of 20 seen.
No trip to St Aidan's can go by without mention of the 1000's of Black-headed Gulls that breed there. Although not everyone's favourite, surely no-one can deny the beauty of this bird in full breeding plumage!
Black-headed Gulls
