The wetlands meadow orchestra

On a summer morning you hear the choir on the back hedge.

The wind rustling the reeds like a snare drum

While the warblers frantic like Vivaldi’s strings

There is percussion in the hum of insects, the swish of grass and the offbeat calls of waterfowl,

and the raven adds a base note as he passes over and many via for the position of soloist.

The cuckoo can be heard all across the meadows while the wren or blackcap or whitethroat fill their patch with lyrical song but venture across the open meadow and you may be gifted a skylark rising above them all singing with exquisite beauty.

 Our Summer visitors are arriving over the meadows; swallows, house martins, a cuckoo -  while the reed beds are filling with the sound of warblers.  

This is one of our Summer singers - the Sedge Warbler.... 

 A Little Egret visited early this morning .......

 A kingfisher making good use of the new dipping pool platform... 

 Boo!!

And hello from a very unexciting looking bird, the Cetti warbler, whose loud, imperious call can be heard a lot around Avon Meadows at the moment.

 I spy you.... says the little wren hiding in the reeds...

Gorgeous goldfinch!

 A kingfisher hovering over the scrape...

I Spy...

A day of small things...

 A bee in some bramble blossom...

This guy looks like the plant he is on!...

I love the iridescence of this one...

Hi viz legs! 

A Sedge Warbler in the reed bed today...

And a Whitethroat adding to the chorus from the top of a willow...

With summer visitors having arrived in the last couple of weeks, the reed-beds are full of the sound of bird song....

you will hear the Reed Warbler but they are harder to see...

sitting more on the top of the reeds or in the willow, and with fluttering display flights, you are more likely to see as well as hear the Sedge Warbler...

but don't mix them up with the local residents who are always there, the Reed Bunting...

The swans on the main pool now have three eggs in their nest...

and this male Newt catches some lunch...

Swan, Mrs 38B has decided to build her nest right next to the boardwalk this year, giving excellent views to passers by.... I took this picture of her (currently with 2 eggs) on my phone!

A newt hiding amongst the plants in the ditch....

If you wander up slowly and quietly to the little bridge by the bird hide, you can spot these little guys swimming around in the almost clear water or sunbathing in the shallows perhaps.

One of our vocal summer visitors.... a Blackcap...

and this pair of wrens were busy nest building ....

Greylag geese "on the lookout" but looking at home on the scrape...

while a Great Tit is "giving it all he's got" on the back hedge...

Spring sunshine brought Yellow Brimstones fluttering by in the breeze and this Comma sunbathing...

This Chiffchaff was hunting for grubs in the willow...

And down in the reed beds was the hum of an amphibian party!....

Common frog (left) Common toad (right and below)...

A number of sleepy Snipe on the scrape today, brilliantly camouflaged in the cut reeds, .... though this one is on watch!

A pair of Tufted Ducks seen on the main pool today...

This fox found a warm sunbathing place in the reeds on a cold winter's day ...