Savi's Warbler - Newport Wetlands

What a morning!

We got up at 5am and got down to Newport Wetlands by quarter past six. It was absolutely glorious down there. Not a cloud in the sky, not a breath of air blowing. Perfect conditions to hear the tail end of the Dawn Chorus. We heard a Chiffchaff as soon as we got out of the car. By the time we got to the reserve, it was a cacophony of Blackcaps, Whitethroats, Reed Buntings and Reed Warblers.

We bumped into the lesser spotted John from the RSPB Message Boards and Newport Wetlands answer to Simon King. He told me the Savi's Warbler was still there. I couldn't believe it. My luck with Mega's is they leave the day I arrive!

We hung around the first blind looking for it, to no avail. We then found it just before the bouncy bridge. It was reeling away in the reed beds. It is a most extraordinary sound. It's very mechanical sounding. I'll add John's recording of it to the end of this blip.

It was also very very difficult to photograph as it remained tucked away in the reeds. It took a lot of patience and manual focusing to get this shot, and the half a dozen I managed!

After a lovely breakfast of jam and croissants sat by the lighthouse we meandered around the rest of the reserve.

Now if it hadn't been for the photo of this mega then there were three contenders for the blip photo.

Ladies and gentlemen I give you a singing Wren with an ant on its head

I could have gone uber cute and given you a Cygnet Swan!

Or how about a bit of nature in action with a Whitethroat with a caterpillar.

We were home by lunchtime, and we came home to find the birds are now eating me out of house and home. To add to the influx and garden ticks for here, I've had the first Greenfinch and even a Bullfinch on the feeders. It is now bewildering the amount of birds that have appeared!

It looks like I am sorted for blips for the foreseeable future!

You can see the rest of the photos from today in my Newport Wetlands Summer 2014 album.

John's YouTube video can be seen here.