Early May mornings

Recently I've been taking the dogs along the river early in the morning. Gemma dislikes heat and prefers to be out in the cool, the light's lovely and there are very few people about. Both the hawthorn blossom and the cow parsley are now at their peak.

Breeding activity amongst the local birds has become frenetic. This song thrush has a territory close to the first bridge...

while this sedge warbler has taken over a small area of reed and a young ash just to the west.

I've frequently seen bullfinches around a sallow tree near the first bridge and today heard the soft piping call, which suggests they are breeding nearby.

This morning this coot was busy building a nest amongst a stand of reed sweet-grass at the western end of the Electricity Cut...

while these mallards were using the tops of the newly pollarded willows as a look-out.

There seem to be more reed warblers than usual on the reserve - I've not kept a proper count, but have heard about six or seven singing males. This one has a nest in the pond at the eastern end of the reserve.

The pair of swans that regularly nest at the eastern end of the Electricity Cut are back, and are incubating at least seven eggs. This is the female, seen through a protective screen of reeds.

There are also seem to be plenty of wrens - this one was singing loudly in a patch of willow and bramble at the western end of the site.

And although they don't breed in the immediate vicinity, this common tern had found a good meal - I just hope its eyes weren't bigger than its stomach!