'Warbler Avenue'

Today saw a dawn start at the Trust's Croxall Lakes nature reserve near Alrewas for the first of the breeding wader survey of 2014.  Immediately obvious were two pairs of oystercatchers disputing who was 'king and queen' of the island.  The battle continued throughout the morning.

The path between the car park and the first bird hide is one of my favourite places on the nature reserve, an area I've called 'warbler avenue'.  Today it lived up to its name.  Eight species of warbler were present; chiffchaff, willow warbler, whitethroat, sedge warbler, reed warbler, blackcap, garden warbler and a brilliant lesser whitethroat in the scrub next to the bird hide.  A second 'lesser-throat' was on the other side of the railway near the south tunnel.

Otherwise the reserve was surprisingly quiet.  A single lapwing flew over, two snipe flushed out of the river connection channel at the north end of the west lake and two common sandpipers were feeding on islands in the river restoration area.  Also here were several teal, a little egret and two pairs of shelduck.

Find out more about the reserve here - http://www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk/reserves/croxall-lakes

'Warbler avenue' is definitely worth a visit

The river restoration area looking great

An evening visit to Doxey Marshes produced a new grasshopper warbler reeling from the fence line around the oxbow reedbed at the east end of the reserve.