Fresh as a daisy !

One of this years crop, this Willow Warbler was a real little poser, preening out in the open and enjoying some very warm weather.

Its nice to see birds having '' a wash and brush up '' but in my experience the resultant images do not really capture the activity well.

Or maybe its just me !.

Willow Warbler.

Very nice bright eye contact with this chap perched high up in brilliant sunlight.

The season is sadly on its way out but what character these chaps, as always, have contributed again this year with their presence.

Titchmarsh LNR certainly hosts more than its fair share of these visitors annually.

New kid on the block ......

This Willow Warbler was shouting the odds and letting everyone know that he was back at the reserve in rude health for the breeding season.

I'm not very good at differentiating between Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs, in the absence of song and as a rule of thumb I take leg colour as the determining factor, black for Chiffchaff and pink for Willow Warbler, not very scientific I know ........ please do let me know if I have got it wrong this time and I will amend the post, many thanks in advance!.

Lackford Lakes and Burwell, Suffolk and Cambs.

Lackford Lakes is a compact and very friendly reserve run by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust located in between Elveden and Bury St Edmonds. The numerous hides are well located and well managed overlooking a variety of habitats comprising of reed beds, scrapes and gravel pits.  

Our objective was to connect with Kingfishers and we were successful, otherwise the reserve was fairly quiet awaiting the arrival of winter migrants for which it is renowned.

Given the above we decided to relocate to Bakers Fen and Adventurers Fen, Burwell  which abuts Wicken Fen on its south western border. 

Just before we left whilst we were loading our kit into the car a very showy Chiffchaff was in a hedge no more than ten feet from us, the light quality was superb and really made the birds plumage shine.

Again, Burwells' Fens were fairly quiet, I'm afraid its that time of the year, Little Egrets, little Grebe and a Kingfisher was flitting about and fishing  in front of Charlies Hide.

Graham Barker ( https://www.youtube.com/user/gwafilms/videos ) will be posting a video of our trip shortly on his U-tube site. 

                                                                  Heavily cropped.

                                                                  Heavily cropped

A busy time of year for Willow Warblers ..............

Willow Warblers are notoriously difficult to tell apart from a Chiffchaff if the song is not heard so I sincerely hope that I have not got any of the following images mis-identified !.

Please let me know if I have as I am certainly a bit uncomfortable with the last image !.

Males are known to be polygamous having more than one mate so who knows, either way the breeding season has been very successful this year. 

The fledglings are out and about seemingly everywhere on the reserve with their fresh, more yellow plumage ..... sorry to say but migration of our summer visitors is under way, the cuckoos left Mid-July.  

The later breeders are still very busy feeding young and indeed it may be that with the good weather of late and the abundance of insects etc., that second broods are the order of the day, each brood consisting of 4-8 eggs.