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Various waders still present/passing through in the last two days include greenshank, ruff, common sandpiper, snipe, dunlin, ringed plover, little ringed plover, green sandpiper, and of course lapwing. Wood sandpiper (see photo, thanks Graham) seen yesterday, though not reported today up to 4pm. Two...

At least one marsh harrier continues to appear on a daily basis - it's plain dark-brown plumage topped with fantastic creamy-yellow/orange head marks it out as a juvenile. I managed to take a distant photo of it whilst it stopped to talk to one of the local herons. Passage waders in the last 2 days...

On the heath over the last few days have been a number of black darter dragonflies - they have an amusing way of avoiding sunburn (or whatever it is they are doing) and it is called the obelisk position. It is a handstand, as far as I can tell - shame it isn't an olympic sport. Black darter was first...

Still plenty water on site, despite our attempts at getting rid of some. The recent passage of various waders continues - black-tailed godwits, green sandpipers, greenshank, little ringed plovers and common sandpipers. On the the larger pools on the north brooks a few teal and shoveler are present, along...

Trail passable but wellies/waterproof boots recommended for the section between West mead and Winpenny, and be aware the conditions may change over the weekend. Water levels appear to be dropping slightly, although the site is still flooded enough for two great crested grebes to be enjoying the north...

Garden warblers singing from a few places around the trail now - a very reliable spot is just at the top of the zigzag path about 100m from the visitor centre. Lesser whitethroat has been singing regularly from a bit further down the path. Nightingales and blackcaps still singing well from various places...

Another extraordinary day of swallow and martin passage - the photos below give you some idea of the numbers sheltering/resting in the rain this morning. The first is of a gateway on the north brooks - there were several similarly 'loaded' with birds -, the second the fence next the waste water...

Good day on the reserve yesterday - apart from the wryneck, which appeared on-and-off throughout the day, the north brooks held an interesting selection of waders: 1 Temminck's stint, 1 little stint, up to 11 ruff, 2 or 3 greenshank, 1 or 2 common sandpipers, up to 12 snipe, plus several ringed plovers...

This morning on the north brooks - 2 ruff, 1 greenshank, 4 dunlin, 1 ringed plover, at least 7 green sandpipers, 2 common sandpipers, ca 100 lapwing and ca.110 greylag geese. Marsh harrier still being seen regularly, and yesterday, 2 whinchats on north brooks and 2 redstarts at redstart corner (ie. on...

At least one juvenile marsh harrier was hunting across the south brooks yesterday morning - this is typical August bird for us here and this one was right on cue. If previous years are anything to go by, it will stay around for some weeks. A young cuckoo was also present yesterday, eating cinnabar caterpillars...

A wood sandpiper was on the north brooks yesterday evening (per Gordon Beck) - also present several green and common sandpipers, 3 greenshank, redshank and 2 little ringed plover. Barn owl was hunting from about 20.00 and 3 common terns dropped in briefly (per David Andrews).

Still a selection of passage waders on the north brooks - greenshank, green sandpiper, common sandpiper and little ringed plover present this morning. Several lesser whitethroat, whitethroat, willow warblers and chiffchaffs in the scrub around the trail. Yesterday an adult male and juvenile female...

A fantastic weekend of passage waders - up to 10 species present on monday - was topped by the appearance of a wryneck on tuesday. A truly fantastic bird. Described by my colleague Paul as "like a squashed bittern", this small camoflagued migrant woodpecker is now a very rare visitor to the...

Spring is very much in progress here due to the very warm weather - nightingales are singing all around the nature trail, cuckoos are cuckoo-ing and two of our later-arriving migrants, the lesser whitethroat and garden warbler, are 'in' now. A common crane dropped in to the reserve on sunday...