Breakfast in the reed beds

We had a wonderful little interlude this morning. Nina, Julia and I met at Unsatisfactory Bridge on the Ouzel at 5am to experience the dawn chorus in the reed beds.

The morning was idyllic with a clear sky overhead and the reddening glow of morning on the eastern horizon. There were two hides in the reeds but one seems to have been burned down by under-stimulated morons so we used the other one. The hide is situated between an area of woodland, some relatively open water and a patch of dense reeds. Each of these tiny habitats had its own distinct soundscape.

The woodland singers were chaffinch, woodpecker, robin, wren, blackbird, sparrow, dunnock and thrush – many singing heartily from the top of trees and shrubs. The reeds were a dense twitter of unseen small birds, including what may have been reed warblers, with an amazing variety of calls.

For the birds on the open water and at its margins breeding was obviously in full swing. A pair of moorhens (moorhuhns) had already laid a clutch of six white and brown speckled eggs in a lovely nest elevated just above the water while a male coot was fiercely defending his territory against even the most harmless passersby.

The geese are clearly not big on early mornings and the canadas and greylags swam in sleepy circles. A lugubrious heron hovered in and landed expertly on a dry tuft in the margins then appeared to spend the next two hours closely watching an enormous nesting swan – a prey surely too large to eat?

We watched and listened; ate a hearty breakfast; took some photos and botanical samples and made some recordings – and were still in work by 07:15.

Julia also spotted a flock of gold finches which have haircuts almost as impressive as A Flock of Seagulls.

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