2011 migrants part 2…
The month’s crept on, and the migrants have kept coming.
On the 11th April, I got my first redstart of the year, at Agden Rocher - a nice consolation for a no-show from a great grey shrike that had been lurking in the area! (The photo below was my second, at Wharncliffe Chase, on 17th).
On the 16th I had a very productive trip to Carr Vale, getting the first yellow wagtail, common sandpiper, whitethroat and (typically heard-only) grasshopper warbler of the year, though missing out on house martin and common tern I was hoping for. Yellow wag was probably the biggest target of the day though, being a bird I struggle to catch up with closer to home.
On the 17th I had my first tree pipits at Wharncliffe Chase…
…and a trip there on Good Friday (22nd) proved very good indeed, with my first cuckoo of the year, and wood warbler in Wharncliffe Wood. A grasshopper warbler reeling on the Chase on the same day was not only a predicted patch tick, but also the first time I’d got a half-decent view of this elusive bird!
Finally so far I got my first garden warbler of the year, again on the Chase, on 24th.
Still plenty to go! I’m late with ring ouzel, sedge warbler, reed warbler, common tern, house martin, lesser whitethroat, whinchat and pied flycatcher, hobbies have started to trickle in, and spotted flycatchers and swifts will be in any day now…
