Rain was promised overnight, but when I woke in the morning everywhere was dry. It wasn't until I reached the motorway that I came across rain. Another surprise was the fact that the A31 was closed due to an incident so this meant a detour around the New Forest on my journey to meet Ian at Blashford.
The reserve had just opened so the hide was empty. Looking out across the water it, too was empty of the duck seen a few weeks ago. There were plenty of gulls and in amongst them were fly catching Common Tern. The terns would rest close to the hide, flying to find a suitable post.
Coming in to take a post and announcing its arrival.
But doesn't get it all its own way.
Common Terns are always a joy to photograph.
One Black-headed Gull in front of the hide had also laid claim to one of the posts.
Along with the Common Terns fly catching were hundreds of hirundine, mostly Sand Martin and Swallows along with several House Martins.
A nice black and white image of a Tufted Duck.
We left the Tern Hide and walked around to the Goosander Hide. On the way we passed a Willow Warbler singing in a birch tree.
The song though had some surprises, the typical Willow Warbler flutey song, but with a bit of Chiffchaff thrown in at the end. Some video to show this.
Settling into the hide I picked up a distant Red Kite, but as we watched it something larger appeared.
An adult White-tailed Eagle, here a closer look.
And a size comparison with a Buzzard that decided to mob it.
The main activity in front of the hide was the large flock of Sand Martin, and they became a challenge to photograph.
The artificial nest holes are the attraction and you could see several going in and coming out of the holes.
Some amazing acrobatics with one flipping itself upside down.
A single Common Sandpiper surprised me as it flew from under the branches on the left hand side to the far bank.
This Great Crested Grebe was also fly catching, taking the insects off the surface of the water.
Walking back to the car park the Willow Warbler was still singing its different song from the birch tree.
We left Blashford for Bolderwood in the New Forest, we were hoping for maybe finding a Wood Warbler. We parked at the Canadian War Memorial and walked into the inclosure. The newly emerging leaves looked spectacular in the afternoon sunshine
We couldn't hear the hoped for Wood Warbler, but we did hear Redstart, typically at this time of the season at the top of the trees. This one flying away from us.
It gave us a bit of a run around, finally coming down to the ground where it would fly from the top of a small conifer to the ground to feed.
But also showed nicely on the top of the conifer.
A Buzzard came over and this spooked the Redstart.
Then another summer migrant and a first for the year, a Tree Pipit. It didn't make it easy to photograph though.
The Redstart was back singing from the top of a pine tree.
We walked around the inclosure but still without any sign or sound of a Wood Warbler. We did though come across this Firecrest.
An interesting day, maybe though we should have stuck to the south coast. But who really knows what will turn up. One thing I can say is that we are getting closer to the illusive White-tailed Eagle.
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