I reached FI at about 8.30 taking my normal route starting with Barton reedbed,only stopping at the monolith for a scan to see if there was any waterfowl broods but none present there yet.
I contiued round to Beardie corner where I heard my first Sedge Warbler of the Year .I didn't hang around for Bearded Tit as there as been none reported for a month or so on the reserve now,which is a great shame so I reached Pursuit Pit and yes got my first brood of 7 young Canada Geese.
I walked along the Humber bank to Pursuit pit hide to count the Avocet and picked out a lone Common Sandpiper along with 2 Common Tern on the new raft,also a Reed Warbler could be heard in the reedbed but didn't show itself,after a while 2 Common Swift flew through my first of the year,I carried on along the bank to the old cement works to see if I could find any more migrants tucking themselves away but not a chance,so I continued to Reedy hide on the north of Ness pit with even more Avocet on here I counted these up making the total over 80 birds a great count for the reserve I think.
With my mind set on going to Chowder ness for some waders I continued back along the bank looking for and Wheatears on the wall but things changed when I reached Target pit,the martins and swallows were close in by the hide feeding along the margin,so I though that I may aswell try for some shots so as I lifted the flap up on Target hide the first bird I see was a Red-rumped Swallow but I thought to myself no maybe a House Martin just crossed a Swallow so it looked like it had a rump,so I waited and within a few seconds it came back round and sure enough it was brilliant finding my own Red-rumped Swallow only my second for Britain.
After 10 minutes or so of watching it feed they all disappeared but was soon relocated over at blowells,sorry Andy but the brood count went out the window at this point.
I headed over to try and get some shots and some cracking views with it flying over everybody's head about 10 foot up so big smiles on my face :)
A Lesser Whitethroat could be heard here calling with time pushing along I decided on heading down to the visitor centre for a well deserved drink and kitkat before heading off home.
I finally got home and uploaded my pics when I got another text from Andy Sharp saying a male Ring Ouzel at Far Ings in the field to ness pit,so with my memory card back in the camera this time it was a quick dash on my bike back to Far Ings to get this in the bag which I did and some not bad shots a fantastic day for me with 2 new birds added to my Far Ings list.
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| Ring Ouzel |
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| Red-rumped Swallow |
