A couple of firsts for the year

I bagged my first Lesser Whitethroat of the year at Collingham this evening, rattling from the hedge on the south side of the Silt Lagoon. I followed it as it moved up the western hedge and onto Northcroft Lane, where it seemed to settle; I guess it was just in (I didn't get my first one of these in 2013 until 23 April). Nearby, my first Sedge Warbler was in the reeds in front of the hide at Mons Pool. There also seemed to be more Blackcaps around the site.

The first sizeable group of Sand Martins of the year was a flock of 40 or so over Ferry Lane Lake; there were no House Martins amongst them though (or Crag Martins for that matter...), and the only Swallow of the evening was over Northcroft Pond a little later. 

There was no sign of the Ibis (gone to roost?), but other things included 5 noisy Oystercatchers on Mons Pool, with a couple of Snipe and the 3 Egyptian Geese there too, and 2 nice spotty Redshanks on the Silt Lagoon, where there was a doe Roe Deer munching on fresh reedmace growth.

The ditch on the eastern side of the Silt Lagoon, which was wet on Wednesday night, was dry for most of its length tonight, with the pump from Northcroft Pond (which had been discharging into it) now diverted into the Silt Lagoon. A couple of clumps of tadpoles were in the one wet stretch, and I found a stranded eel in a dried-out area; I prodded it with a stick, and it twitched a little, so I did my good deed for the week and bundled it up into a plastic bag, and took it to Mons Pool; as soon as it touched the water it seemed to revive and slid of into the depths.