Sutton Bingham - Sun 11 May

I'd not had the opportunity to visit the reservoir over the past week other than an hour on Thursday morning, where I had two singing Reed Warblers, one off the jetty at the end of the northern causeway, which seems to have present for a while and is holding territory, plus a second bird at the extreme south of the patch. I also saw three Red Kites during that visit.

This evening I had a message from Pete telling me that a Lesser Whitethroat was singing opposite the southern causeway, so I popped down and met up with Pete and after listening to it sing for a while, finally clapped my eyes on the Lesser Whitethroat, my first for the year.

As Pete wandered off I returned to the car and noticed a falcon in the top of a tree, the light was dreadful as it was directly behind the bird, however, it was clear to see it was a Kestrel, my second of the year and a tough bird to see at Sutton Bingham these days. As you can see, the light was s poor I could only get silhouettes of the bird, but you can still tell it's a bird!

Sutton Bingham year list for 2025 now at 97 species.

Sutton Bingham - Sun 4 May

A late afternoon visit today and there wasn't a huge amount to report, however, as I was stood at the northern causeway I had a bit of a shock as an Osprey appeared and successfully caught a fish, albeit a rather small one! I then lost it as it gradually gained height and drifted south. Here's a distant record shot!

I then went down the arm and had a look around, the pick of the birds being a pair of Teal. Then, to my surprise, the Osprey reappeared and took another fish, circled the reservoir and headed off to the south-west, not to be seen again, although it was closer, enabling slightly better record shots...slightly better!

So a pretty good visit in the end, with a decent year tick.

Sutton Bingham year list for 2025 now at 96 species.