30 mins = 1 hour

The Safari had a change from taking Frank to play rugby on Patch 1 - we went to the nature reserve instead. How hot was it??? Felt like the tropics walking down the track with the sun on our backs and the sight of a pair of Black Swans flying over against the azure blue sky made it seem like we were in WA. On the reserve there were rakes of Chiffchaff, Blackcaps and Willow Warblers, but we were after stuff that was more recently arrived. Gotcha - a Whitethroat (148) doing its dancing song flight from the tip of a Dog Rose bush. Walking a bit further round the path and spotting MJ on a bench in the distance we decided to meet up with him as he may have had some inside information. At the back of the island a Sedge Warbler (149) belted out its erratic song/medley/tuneless warble. things were going swimmingly! We joined MJ on the bench and he told us tales of this morning's 'twitch' to the local cemetery for two Ring Ouzels followed by a bad dip on the Common Crane that was on the marshes to the south of us the day yesterday. All the time we were listening for our quarry for the evening, Grasshopper Warbler, although neither of us can hear them particularly well these days, so one could easily have been reeling away unnoticed not too far away. anyway we didn't hear any buut MJ did recount his story of how to miss an Ashy Headed Wagtail - a great find in Lancashire at the other end of the motorway from us. We decided to give the Gropper a go in another spot a little further down and as we moved along a sizable flock of hirundines dropped in. Now the Safari needs House Martin still and scanning hard we found...a Swift! (150).

So that's 150 up, just 25 to go for our 'expected' total but a scary 50 more to find for the 'lucky' total. With yesterday's seabirds our 'on foot' list has reached 80, no idea what the final tally will be on this one.

Later dudes...