Weston-Super-Mate WTW - Sat 19 May

A busy morning sorting out a few things around the house and tidying up before taking a load of stuff to one of the local charity shops followed by a leisurely lunch...until I checked the pager and saw news of a singing Great Reed Warbler at Weston-Super-Mare at the Water Treatment Works. So I pretty much dropped everything (luckily I was not holding Tristan at the time) and jumped in the car to head north. It took less than an hour to reach the site and as soon as I got out of the car and climbed the bank I could hear the bird singing! After a walk of about 100 metres I joined the couple of dozen other birders and soon got on this massive warbler as it sang away in the reeds.

After about ten minutes it started getting harassed by a pair of Reed Warblers which were dwarfed by their larger cousin, and the unwelcome attention was enough to send the bird to a more distant patch of reeds. But it did not matter, I had connected with a UK tick. As I was about ot walk back to the car a raptor drifted overhead before dropping over the fields behind us, it was a female Marsh Harrier, a nice little bonus. I didn't hang around much longer, and after a quick chat with some of my Somerset birding mates I drove back home for dinner.
UK list for 2012 now at 191 species.