Early Morning at Brandon

I managed to drag my birder's wife out of bed at 6:30am this morning and we arrived at Brandon at 7:25am. We started our visit with a walk past the windmill to Sheep Field hoping for a Lesser Whitethroat but managed to clock up Willow Warbler, Chiff Chaff, Blackcap and Garden Warbler (my first for the year) instead. As we reached the Wright Hide we finally heard the familiar rattling sound of a Lesser Whitethroat and soon found him flitting around the top of a nearby bush. He posed for us for a moment then darted into some brambles. As we seemed to be on a roll, we then proceeded to march to Carlton Hide for the Nightingale. Well, when I say marched I actually mean waded, as the paths were completely flooded -(just as well we were wearing our wellies). When we arrived at Carlton Hide we were met with questions from those already in the hide as to whether we had come in a boat to rescue them. After asking about the Nightingale, we were told that it had been appearing on and off.  So, we decided to settle down and wait for it to come back from it's lunch break. After just over an hour we were rewarded with our patience and had stunning views of the bird sitting in a bush singing it's heart out - lovely! As the cafe was about to open we then paddled our way back and I bought my birder's wife breakfast as compensation for getting her up so early on a Saturday. Hopefully, we can do a repeat performance tomorrow afternoon with the Capt (who does not do early mornings).