Five year ticks in one evening just shows I've been slacking

Doxey Marshes was doing me great this evening, much better than I originally thought it would.  OK, first up was speckled wood, year tick number one.  I think I can be forgiven for this one as they're only just starting to be seen.  Two of these beauties were embroiled in battle right next to the cemetery entrance, completely oblivious to the passing visitors.

Around the corner a blob a-top a bush caught my eye.  Sometimes knowing a site inside out can help, and the blob turned out to be a cracking whinchat, year tick number two.  Once I'd set my scope up for a closer look it had been joined by a wheatear, not a year tick outright, but a year tick for the site.

From the hide, scanning along the back edge of the scrape, there were 3 little-ringed plovers and singles of common sandpiper, lapwing and snipe, all feeding within a few yards of each other.  A sparrowhawk blasted over the hedge and another 6 snipe which were previously hidden in the rushes took flight.  The pair of shelduck remain, along with two pairs of gadwall.  The two females goosanders dropped in again just before I left, this time with a male.

Pushing on around the reserve I reached Warrens Lane and was delighted to hear reed warbler, garden warbler and grasshopper warbler simultaneously.  A real treat, and three year ticks in one go although three that I probably should have got at least a week ago when the birds were first arriving.

All in all a rewarding evening that nearly didn't happen.