Last Saturday I returned to Titchmarsh to join the working party that does various management tasks around the reserve. We meet on the last Saturday of the month at 09:00, if anyone is interested in joining us. With the winter scrub bashing season over, we decided to concentrate on painting the hides with wood preservative. However, firstly I wanted to pack the holes we had drilled in the sand martin bank with sand to help attract these birds. As we approached the bank I saw a flock of about 20 sand martins wheeling around the bank and chattering excitedly. We immediately backed off to leave them to it. This was most encouraging as previously I had only seen the odd sand martin anywhere near the bank.
The rest of the morning was spent painting the Peter Scott hide and the Kirby (Northants Bird Club) hide. Whilst we were working the sound of a reeling grasshopper warbler was occasionally heard when the wind alowed it. Further down the reserve a cuckoo was calling, my first for the year. Rod Brown, one of our group, had walked up from Islip and heard a nightingale in the scrub at the south end of the reserve. I kept a look-out for a passing osprey but none appeared.
However, Paul Blackman sent me a photo of an osprey carrying a fish that he took on the reserve on the evening of the 27th.
