April is the month which sees the greatest arrivals of summer migrants into Britain, whereas autumn migration is a protracted affair, spring sees a great urgency for migrant birds to make for their breeding sites and habitats, territories have to be secured and held in readiness for breeding.
I arrived at Thompson Water at 0615, the conditions at dawn was grey with mist, however, the cloud and mist dispersed with the rising sun, it was quite pleasant but the east wind had a cool edge to it.
The first birds heard was Song Thrush with many singing birds present, which was very pleasing. On the water was small numbers of Wigeon, Pochard, Gadwall, Tufted Duck, and an overflying pair of Mandarins. A single Little Egret passed over in a northerly heading.
Chiffchaffs were by far the most abundant singing migrant with a few Blackcaps present to, the latter will see big increases now we are in April.
The only evidence of winter migrants was a single overflying Fieldfare. Most Fieldfares would have departed for their Northern European breeding grounds by now although good sized flocks can still be seen in April. I have seen Fieldfares on the patch as late as the first week of May
In 2007, I found the first ever Cetti's Warbler here at Thompson Water, this species is now a firm resident at Thompson. Today, I located 4 singing Cetti's Warblers around the site, one of these was very close, it is at times like this when you can appreciate the amazingly loud song for the size of the bird, for me, it sounds like the bird is shouting loudly at me in a scolding fashion.
The Cetti's Warbler is a notoriously difficult bird to see, it lives a very secret life in dense cover and moves fast and mouse-like close to the ground, the loud song betrays its presence, however, you search the source of the song but the bird cleverly eludes the observer. A long wait eventually produced this shot of very brief appearance by a male Cetti's Warbler.
 |
| Cetti's Warbler at Thompson Water 1 April 2025 |
Another very elusive species is the Water Rail, a bird of dense reedbeds, from where it delivers its loud pig-like squealing. To the inexperienced the call of the Water Rail could be quite unnerving.
As I was preparing to leave a single Swallow arrived at Thompson Water, a short while later, another first for the year was a singing Willow Warbler in typical Birch scrub habitat. Willow Warbler was my target species for the day.
