Weather: clear, sunny, going to a cool dusk. From 8pm.
One of the sightings sites I check regularly had been reporting a savi's warbler at a location not too far from London, so after some umming & ahhing, & a day cooped up in the office, I decided to head up there to see if could locate this elusive species for a great life tick.
The lakes & canals in the area make up a wonderful natural oasis just off the M25 & there were plenty of the usual wildfowl sharing the waters with the anglers: Greylag Goose, Mallard,
Coot, Tufted Duck, Mute Swan, Great Crested Grebe, Pochard, Moorhen.
Also in the wonderfully lush woods were Chaffinch, & the first songs of Garden Warbler that I had heard in many a year. I lingered at a of couple points along the path hoping one would show & finally I was rewarded with my best ever view as one sang from within a dense tree but luckily for me from a clearing in the branches through which I could view it which I did for several minutes. The last time I saw one in the UK was on my very first birding day-out in 1984!
I had no such luck with a singing Nightingale though as it was too distant to even attempt trying to see it from its well concealed singing spot. Easier to pick up were Crow, Wren & Canada Goose.
After I had retraced my steps from going completely the wrong way, it wasn't long before I reached the spot where several other birders were watching for the savi's & from there picked out Common Tern across the water as well as Gadwall. I moved a few metres past the others for a different vantage point (where I saw the garden warbler mentioned earlier) & as dusk descended I was delighted to pick up my first Hobby of the year which was soon joined by others, hawking close-by over the reeds for insects.
It wasn't long after that I heard the distinctive 'gropper'-like reeling of the savi's so I quickly went back & joined the other birders & staked out the reedbeds from where it was singing. A couple of times it sounded very close but remained elusive. However I suddenly saw flash of brown bird diving from one reed to another & down into the beds from where the reeling had come from. Not exactly a 'show' by any stretch but circumstantially I felt fairly certain it was my first Savi's Warbler, a life tick & my first twitch, sort of? I continued to listen & search in vain until the light died & I had to head off.
On the way back to the car I heard a Cuckoo, Cetti's Warbler, Chiffchaff, Robin & Blackbird; a Song Thrush flashed across the path low into bushes. In the gloom I then saw something moving on the path in front of me but I had to use my binoculars to enhance my night vision in order to pick out a Fox which quickly melted into the undergrowth. As I got to the spot where the fox had been I heard a Reed Warbler singing from a well-hidden spot low down in a bush, my first of the year, & finally a Grey Heron & Swift overhead (as they always are).
20 species, 1 new species.
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