Sunday 20th April

A grey misty morning. I headed straight around to the south side to check out Fenlake where c.9 Black-Tailed Godwits were flying about fast and low before disappearing into the mist. C.15 Teal were also on the move and a couple of Lapwing were displaying. Only a single Shelduck. A Redshank called.

Blackcaps and Chiffs were regularly spaced along the north side of the river as I walked on down to the Spillway. I then turned back towards the main lake and stopped off at the Hide. While scanning the lake a couple of small Terns caught my eye and on closer inspection they turned out to be Black Terns. Having seen Dave K's car in the car park I continued around the lake in the hope of catching up with him to confirm my sighting. We met up at the beach and while scanning for the Terns Dave spotted 2 adult Little Gulls but they departed north soon after. Having confirmed the Black Terns and put the word out we headed off around the main lake.

The Green Woodpecker was drumming on the nest box in the trees opposite the Beach. We stopped in one of the east side fishing swims to scan the lake again and a Kingfisher flew to the trees on our left stopping briefly. Another or same Kingfisher did a couple of flypasts as we continued around the south east end of the lake. We stopped on the south side and tried to get a few photo's of the Black Terns but I didn't get anything worth showing, not sure about Dave. It was just too misty to get anything decent, oh for a bit of sun! While scanning for Arctic Terns I spotted a possible Swift but it was over the north side of the lake and going away when I lost it so not certain about the ID.

We checked out Fenlake again and from the north side of the river there still seemed to be just the 9 Blackwits but we walked around to the south side of the river just as 4 and then 11 more flew in. A second Shelduck also flew in. There were at least 3 Sedge Warblers and a Willow Warbler on the south side of the river. Some Lapwing were quite close to the fence line giving good views.

Back in the park other birders had arrived and located a couple of Arctic Terns over the main lake, the Black Terns were still around and remained until at least 11am when I left the park.

A couple of Pied Wagtails followed a male Sparrowhawk through the Beefeater car park, looked as if they were seeing it off!

Down at Fingers a female Blackcap along with a couple of singing males in the Rough. Chiff's on usual territories around Fingers. A Great Crested Grebe was on the nest on west Fingers and the other bird was bringing more nest material over. Both Mute swans were on west Fingers with one on the nest. Again large numbers of Swallows and Martins over the park with c.23 Swallows and c.8 Sand Martins using the dead tree on the Spit as a resting place. Little of note at Kramer hide. At the Spit the Chiff by the crescent was singing and a Sedge Warbler was in the Crescent. A male Blackcap was a little further along the Spit. There were a couple of Coot on west Fingers.

Back at the car park a couple of Willow Warblers and Blackcap were singing as I left.