Potteric Carr.......

A full day to ourselves today for Chris and myself saw us heading firstly for a flying visit(No pun intended)to Boston Park at the excellent Hatfield Moor NNR and then onto the YWTR at Potteric Carr.Highlights at Boston Park included a nice selection of migrant and resident birds and in the hour we were there included 2 Black-necked Grebe,2 Little-ringed Plover,3 Yellow Wagtail,1 male Wheatear and 2 singing male Corn Bunting.The Black-necked Grebe is such a smashing species,as are all the grebes,but these are a definite favourite of mine and they showed nicely as they continually dived for food,superb and supremely beautiful!.The 'Whitearse' also showed very nicely on the short cropped turf near to were we had parked the car,my first male this year.So after our little foray at Hatfield we then made the short journey over to Potteric,paid our 3 quid day permit and off we went to explore this large and ever expanding reserve managed by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.It soon became apparent on our journey around the reserve that it was going to be another wet day,as several rain showers passed over,but it didn't put us off and we persevered.The best bird of the day was a cracking male Cetti's Warbler which showed superbly out in the open near to the Old Haa marsh hide,perching on some nettle stems before moving into a nearby Hawthorn,a little cracker!.I really like this species and have enjoyed some cracking views of them in recent years a welcome recent coloniser and long may it continue,with that superb explosive song.The next highlight was my first Whitethroat of the year and he gave brief views as he sang from a Hawthorn before another shower passed over and that was the last we saw of him.In fact,it was the Warblers which really made up the day,with us recording 6 species,but still no Lesser Whitethroat or Sedge Warbler for my yearlist.A few Hirundines were also observed,with a handfull of Sand and House Martin and a few Swallows.Breeding activity was apparent all around the reserve,with us enjoying great views of a couple of Avocet mobbing a Carrion Crow and a Coot with 4 very small young,which were still sporting their egg tooths.Non bird highlight included a tree climbing Short-tailed field Vole and 3 species of Butterfly which appeared after a brief 30 minute spell of sunshine and included singles of Speckled Wood,Green-veined White and my first Orange Tip of the year,a male,seen dashing away from us.So all in all a mixed bag on the weather side again,with some good birds seen today and a big thanks to Chris for driving.