Saturday 23rd May

Yesterday took a trip to Ken Dee Marshes Reserve with my sister Hilary, and had some resonable luck in seeing one or two things that were new for her.

Having pursued a couple of bullfinches on the road to the reserve, we quickly saw some kites and two or three lapwings displaying, which again surprised me.  But Hilary thinks they may have been trying to scare off intruders from an area where they had already nested.

Approaching a wooded area, there was a consistent grumbling from the bushes, which I was able to attribute to a sole sedge warbler, a bit of a bonus sighting but one she hadn't experienced.

Further along we agreed on a fleeting sighting of a female blackcap, which however we both saw, plus a few willow warblers, which were around at most places we sampled.

In the middle hide, a nuthatch quickly turned up on the left feeder before we concentrated on trying to identify some of the ducks on the loch, some of the mallards not for a while appearing very mallard-like at a distance.  Then, to my delight a willow tit turned up a few times on the middle feeder, and I even managed a brief video of it (plus background music from a colony of black-headed gulls).  This was only my second willow tit sighting and I don't think Hilary appreciated how seldom they are seen these days.

Next we visited the main area for pied flycatchers with the various nesting boxes and did manage to see four or five birds fleetingly, although it was a touch disappointing in that visits to the boxes were infrequent and we could not get very clear views of any individual birds.

In the furthest hide another nuthatch turned up on the feeder, followed by various tit visits including several more from willow tits, some long-tailed tits in the background and eventually a greater spotted woodpecker. Apparently there were some garden warblers around but we didn't find them. In the meantime we managed to pick out a shoveler on the loch and agreed that there had been one or two amongst the earlier mallards.

On the way home there were several more red kites, including one very good view of one perching in a tree. Hilary says they perch when they are starting to nest.

One feature of trips with her is definitely that four eyes are better than two.  It makes you wonder how mch you miss when you are out alone.