Garganey

A glance at the Brandon Birding website when I was at work earlier notified me of a drake Garganey on East Marsh Pool today.  As the Capt and my birder's wife were not available for a trip out, I made my way over on my own.  The car park was surprisingly quiet when I arrived and when I got to East Marsh Hide I had it totally to myself.  All quite surprising, considering Garganeys are cracking birds and always worth looking at.  Maybe all the Brandon regulars and others have seen Garganeys already this year.  I found the bird quite quickly, mixing with a Gadwall and managed a few record shots, although not very good.  Besides the Garganey, there were no other new arrivals and the walk back to the car brought the usual warblers and two cuckoos over the Newlands Reedbed.

A quick inspection of our nestbox at home confirmed that our family of Blue Tits have fledged already, unfortunately we were not at home when they left and we will never know how many the busy parents managed to rear.  The good news is that our resident Hedgehog continues to visit and seems to spend most evenings stuffing her face and setting off our security lighting.