Pittswood Birds

A day out at a couple of local nature reserves today, in mostly cool, cloudy and windy weather, made a pleasant change from walking my local patch.

A friend and I visited Sevenoaks Wildfowl reserve firstly, where we noted our first singing BLACKCAPS of the year - loads of 'em!  CHIFFCHAFFS were also encountered by the score, all singing away, plus the other early summer migrants of SWALLOW, SAND MARTIN and HOUSE MARTIN were recorded feeding over one of the lakes, the latter two species being year ticks for my friend.

Fewer Ducks and Geese are to be found at this time of year, but the GREAT CRESTED GREBES looked superb in their spring plumage

A small group of these EGYPTIAN GEESE were on one of the smaller lakes

TUFTED DUCK

We next visited Bough Beech reservoir, where sporadic rain blew in across the reservoir, making it feel raw, but we manged to get to hear and see our first CUCKOO of the year  :-)

WREN

On arriving back home early afternoon I was pleased to see the female Blackcap back in my garden for the third day running, but even more delighted to see it joined by a male bird a bit later, my glee turned to sadness however as i saw the SPARROWHAWK take the male..............bleedin' pesky little shite it is!!