The weather forecast promised sunshine further north today so I drove up to The Brenne which I'd about two hours north of here. Sure enough, the sun shone all day and there was some good birding.
It's not an easy area to work as it's so extensive and the best lakes to view are rather scattered and poorly signposted but I managed to see many of its specialities although mainly in small numbers.
I've not come across a grasshopper warbler for a long time and wasn't really expecting one today but one was reeling away at my first roadside stop. He was very skulking as always and I didn't stay around long enough to get other than flitting views.
Purple herons were more common than greys and I had good views of a night heron sitting in a dead tree by a lakeside. Several cattle egret were around and a single great white.
Wildfowl were not plentiful except for coots but there was an interesting range including red crested pochard and common pochard. Black necked grebes are a Brenne speciality but I found them on only one lake. Great crested were everywhere though.
Garganey were mentioned on the recent sightings board but none showed up for me.
The water levels were too high to expect many waders but I did manage to see common sandpiper, little ringed plover, lapwing, snipe and greenshank.
Another breeding speciality is whiskered tern of which I saw just a single bird. Perhaps the other two hundred which make up the usual summer total had not yet arrived.
House martins were busily building their nests at the restaurant where I had lunch and several swifts were flying around too.
Other birds of note were my first singing reed warblers of the year, although I never actually saw them, and several black kites.
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