4th May - Hill Head and Fishlake Meadows, Hampshire

The definition of insanity they say is doing the same thing over and over and getting the same results.  With more south easterly winds forecast for today I elected once more to start the day at Hill Head for the third time, in the hope of something happening, however it wasn't to be again.  A change from looking longingly out to sea was to look across Duck Bay where the Black Headed Gulls provided a scene.

The only terns moving were close in and they had come off the scrape in the reserve.

I went off for a walk around the canal path with very similar results, spring migrant arrivals singing from the trees and bushes but nothing else of any interest.  Coming back to the sea wall there was a very distant Gannet heading west.

I wasn't sure what to do next and as the time was approaching opening I headed towards the visitor centre.  The tide was high and I decided to check if the Sanderlings had moved to their usual roost.  They had, so I gently got myself into a position where the sun was behind me and settled in to take the next few photographs.

The light was lovely and brought out the colour in the watery background.

May favourite.

The group.

Rather than go onto the reserve I decided to head to Fishlake Meadows, the weather was good and there were a couple of birds I wanted to catch up with.  Walking down the canal path there were at least three Garden Warbler singing in the bushes, there were not however showing very well, but as I waited a Holly Blue settled on the leaves of the garlic mustard by the path.

The Garden Warblers were not showing, but a Cetti's Warbler in the same place did.

I left the warblers to their singing and walked on, a little further along a Wren was singing in the upper branches of a tree.

Then I heard one of the birds I was hoping to see, a Cuckoo and it flew up to a tree in the middle of the reed bed.  The shots were distant, but a record of my first Cuckoo of the year.

As I watched the Cuckoo fly off a damselfly settled on the nettles below me.  It was a female Beautiful Demoiselle, another first of the year and a sign that things were beginning to warm up?

At new trees close to the cross path another Garden Warbler was singing and this one finally showed.

I needed to get my wellies to walk down the cross path, so headed back towards the car park, I didn't get far as the Cuckoo was back and this time a little closer.

And then a little closer.

Two Hobbies had been flying around the sky in the background, but as we watched the Cuckoo a Hobby flew up into the same tree.

Seen here to be calling.

It was nearly midday and the temperature was rising and this meant a heat haze which made sharp photographs difficult.

After a change of footwear and something to eat I headed back to the canal path and this time the Garden Warbler was showing a lot more.

Still surrounded by branches

But then showing a little better.

The song described as similar to a Blackcap, but when you hear it it sounds to me more like the song of a Whitethroat.  They skulk in the branches and are difficult to always see, but a little patience pays off.

As I reached the first viewing platform there was a camera pointing skywards, I looked up and a Hobby was circling above.  It was quite low over my head and I just took the photographs.

I didn't realise this was happening until I reviewed the images, but the Hobby had probably caught a dragonfly and was eating it.

It then soared around me showing really way.

I didn't know it at the time but this was to be the closest I got to a Hobby all afternoon.

It turned and flew away out over the meadows.  I walked on with Orange Tip and Brimstone flying past me.  As I reached the gate for the centre path I walked to the concrete bridge there was a nice male Large Red Damselfly.

The reason I needed to change my footwear to wellies, was because the centre path was still flooded, quite deeply, in places.  I made my way to the screens where I met up with a few others who had the same intention as me, to photograph the Hobbies over the reeds and open water.

Whilst they never came as close as the first encounter, there were seven flying over the area and they were constantly catching insects, that you couldn't see.

They would twist, turn, the tail feathers would spread out and the legs would be raised to catch the prey, what ever it was got transferred to the mouth, and the head eaten, the rest dropped.

When the Hobby first arrives they will spend time at locations like this fueling up on flying insects.  Seven birds here is quite an impressive number, I don't recall that number being reported before.  However at some locations such as Lakenheath Fen, Stodmarsh, Kent and the Avalon Marshes in Somerset, numbers at this time of year can reach in excess of one hundred

The most spectacular action was when from height they would stoop all the way to close to the ground and then swoop up with their catch.

The legs are the lethal weapons the Hobby uses and their amazing eye sight.

At times the Hobby were so high in the sky they were just specks, there were also several Swifts about, but the Hobby were more interested in the insects.  This will change once the hirundines fledge and the Hobby is looking to feed their young.

I took about 700 images and most were discarded, mainly due to the speed of the hobby, however I am pleased with what I have managed to get.

It was a lovely spring day, with some lovely sunshine and acceptable temperatures at last.  Once again after the disaster that was this morning, Fishlake, for once came up with the goods