Sutton Bingham - Wed 23 Mar

Although it was my afternoon off, I had agreed to take part in the Staff vs Pupils Hockey Match at 4.30pm, so I took the opportunity of spending a couple of hours at the reservoir to see if any migrants had arrived...they hadn't! In fact, the only summer migrants on offer were six of so Chiffchaffs that had set up territories and were singing away.
West Pool was pretty quiet, though there were still four Tufted Ducks present and what appears to be a pair of Little Grebes were again present and will hopefully nest. The large gulls contained a Herring Gull of the Scandinavian race, argentatus. Four Black-headed Gulls were also present, and a male Reed Bunting was singing.
I then moved on down to the southern end of the reservoir and took spent well over an hour wandering about. Two Fieldfares were feeding in one of sheep fields and a further four were hopping around in trees. A single Mistle Thrush showed well in the top of another tree.

The Cormorant flock contained a bird which appeared to be the Continental race, sinensis.

There were still half a dozen Teal and a pair of Wigeon present on the water, and four Snipe were flushed from the water's edge. A couple of male Pheasants were also seen, a bird which is more often heard than seen at the reservoir.

A few butterflies were on the wing and I saw singles of Comma and Small Tortoiseshell, and a couple of Peacocks were also seen.
At 4.20pm I headed back to work and scored a goal as the staff beat the pupils 4-3 in the hockey...all in all a good afternoon.