Pennington Flash

Mute swan

I had an afternoon's wander round Pennington Flash as I wanted an easy stroll and the flash is a more manageable space than most of the others on a bright Spring Saturday. For a change I turned left at the meadow and took the paths that go through the wooded area on the south side of the flash before going through the car park and over for a look at Ramsdales.

Goat willow

The trees were busy with titmice and full of singing warblers, mostly chiffchaffs and blackcaps with a few willow tits near the flash and a couple of whitethroats in the more open areas. I have a nagging feeling I may have missed a garden warbler in all this brouhaha. 

Pennington Flash

The sailing club had their boats out on the water so there wasn't much about out there aside from a few mallards and a raft of a couple of dozen lesser black-backs. More mallards lurked by the banks along with a bunch of coots, Canada geese and mute swans. While I was scanning the water from the south bank a reed warbler started singing from the small patch of reeds and brambles by my side. As I was trying to see where it was singing from a Cetti's warbler jumped up from the brambles, made a sparrow-like note of surprise at seeing me and hopped over to the undergrowth over to my left. I'd spent a minute or so watching it to make sure I'd seen a Cetti's and not a sparrow when the reed warbler reminded me it was there.

The car park was, predictably, busy but things soon quietened down once I passed by the play area. The spit by the Horrocks Hide was fairly quiet. A few lapwings and oystercatchers loafed by the bight and a couple of cormorants joined the herring gulls at the end of the spit. Nearly all the black-headed gulls were back at the car park having an easy time of it. It's still a little early to be hoping for swifts but I was surprised to be seeing no hirundines, especially after the swarm of sand martins on my last visit. A pair of stock doves fed in the grassy areas on the spit and a little ringed plover flew in for a couple of minutes then flew off for points unknown.

Pennington Flash

Walking down the path to the Tom Edmondson Hide there was a pair of mute swans nesting on one of the pools in the reeds. There were half a dozen gadwall on the pool across the way from the hide but only a couple of sunbathing herons were visible on the pool in front of the hide. A sedge warbler started singing to my left as I was looking at the gadwall and I took the opportunity to get my ear in. The song's similar to that of the reed warbler but it has more scratchy notes and a tendency to hare off into jerky sidetracks before returning to the main theme. A reed warbler struck up to my right and for a long confusing minute I tried to process the stereo effect. Every so often the rolling cadences would coincide and then the sedge warbler would go into a scratchy stretch or the reed warbler would roll on a roll and they'd go their separate ways.

Ramsdales

The water was quite low at Ramsdales. A few Canada geese and gadwall loafed about and a couple of mallard swam by but there was no sign of any teal or shoveler, nor of the garganey that's been reported here this week. A couple of dozen great crested grebes congregated in the bight well away from the sailing club. I could hear two singing Cetti's warblers: one in the usual place on the corner, one behind me from somewhere near the pond.

Pennington Flash

It was a nice couple of hours' wander round and I had a couple of pleasant chats with people, including a couple on their first visit who were pleased to find out they'd seen their first gadwall and reed warblers.

Pennington Flash