Willow Tit at Girton

After failing to find Willow Tit at Girton yesterday, I had another go today, walking the whole site and initially failing in my quest. However, I did notch up 12 singing Chiffies and a Blackcap, 20 Sand Martins over the Trent, a display-flighting Curlew over Grassthorpe Holme, and what was presumably yesterday's Short-eared Owl again, circling over the site and then drifting west over the Trent.

Digi-binned SEO

I decided to bomb round to Meering to see if I could see the owl from there and get it on my patch list. Foolishly, however, I wound down my window as I passed the prime Willow Tit area in the south-west corner of the site, and decided I could hear... a distant Willow Tit singing. I did rather will to pick this out, if I say so myself, as I tracked it down about 200m away, singing from scrub between the Sailing Lake and the South-west Pit. Just the one bird, but it gives hope that they continue to breed at this site. 

Scrub habitat at Girton Pits

When I finally got round to Meering, I bumped into Trevor and Dilys Pendleton, who were out looking for invertebrates. Needless to say, by the time I started scanning north, there was no sign of the owl, but I did bag a pair of Red-legged Partridges, new for the year. I wrapped things up at Collingham Pits, with 4 Redshank and an LRP on Mons Pool, and the Ibis still favouring the marshy grassland on the southern side of Ferry Lane Lake.