Spring Migrants & Another New Bird for Stour Valley

22nd April at Grove Ferry 

♂ Garganey & Common Tern

I only had a small amount of spare time on Sunday morning the 22nd April and hearing that there was a ♂ Garganey viewable from the Ramp at Grove ferry made up my mind where to go.

I bumped into some of the Stour Valley regulars , Chidders , MW & SM and had decent scope views of the ♂ Garganey which was being kept company by 2 Common Terns , whislt we were chatting Chidders picked out a RED KITE flying over the Feast hide and on checking my records i was very happy to add this to my Stour valley bird list.

23rd  April at Stodmarsh

Chiffchaff.

Yesterday 23rd April i headed to Stodmarsh to look for migrants and hopefully see the Jack Snipe at Marsh hide , whilst parking up i heard a Nightingale and then a Garden Warbler , i had no luck seeing the Nightingale but managed a brief view of the Garden Warbler , there was plenty of Blackcaps on view in the car park & on route to the Marsh hide.

Sedge Warblers were very vocal & often seen doing their parachute flight display , Cetti's Warblers gave brief views whilst Chiffchaff were less shy.

1 of 2 Greenshanks.

I eventually reached the Marsh hide and there was only one other birder in there  who kindly informed me there was no sign of the Jack Snipe so far but there is a Common Sandpiper & 2 Greenshanks ' , i instantly saw one of the Greenshanks more or less in front of the hide , however the Sandpiper was distant on the far pool left of the hide , i had a look and through the heat haze it certainly looked good for Common Sandpiper , later on with less heat haze you could clearly see it was in fact a Green Sandpiper  (light & distance can certainly play tricks on id sometimes).

Greenshank.

I had no luck with the Jack Snipe but i really enjoyed the birds that were there, other birders arrived and between us we picked out some good birds including a distant Red Kite , 2 Wheatears (good spot MH) , plus lots of Sand Martins , House Martins & 10+ Common Swifts , there was also several Swallows.

Wheatear.

Common Swift.

Sand Martin's

On my way back i also got lucky and saw my first Hobby of the spring and the Little Owl was once again back in it's favoured area on the farm buildings.

Hobby.

Little Owl.