A Morning Visit to Brandon Marsh.

Shot over early this morning to Brandon Marsh hoping to do some birding before the forecast rain arrived.Although I set out early it took me ages to get there the traffic was horrendous.Some of the lights at the big island on the A45 were not working and I believe the M6 was closed near Rugby.

It was bright when I started to walk to the New Hare Covert to try for the Pied Flycatcher seen there yesterday.Needless to say I couldn't find it but did manage my first sighting of the year of a Willow Warbler and some good views of both male and female Blackcaps.No good pics though as it's a bit gloomy in there.

Coming out of the woods along the path by the golf course a pair of Ravens cronking loudly flew over and a bit later a Common Buzzard also flew over.

For quite a while a Dunnock had been following me wanting it's picture taken so to get rid of him I rattled off a couple of shots.

By this time the clouds were rolling in and it was getting quite chilly so I headed for the East Marsh hide.I was told the Spotted Crake had shown a couple of times in the channel earlier in the morning but had now gone into the reeds.To keep myself occupied I tried to get some shots of the Sandmartins flying around but when I checked my shots they turned out to be Swallows which were my first of the year.

The Crake continued to stay hidden but I wasn't too disappointed as the White-fronted Goose suddenly dropped in with a few Greylags.I was chuffed to bits to finally catch up with this chap as I'd missed it several times in the last few weeks.Another Warks Year tick which made three for the day.Not too bad!!!!