First let me say sorry to anyone that shot off to Cross Inn looking for the Tree Sparrows after my blog on Friday, my conscious mind was thinking Tree Pipit but the naughty disruptive bit was obviously dwelling on a failed trip on Thursday to see Tree Sparrows at Venus Pools in Shropshire en-route to Wolverhampton. It is a worry that the Sparrows seem to have vacated this site where they have thrived for many years a lot of work has been done over the winter by the Shropshire O. Soc. at the site putting in new hides so perhaps they got disturbed or maybe the weather had some effect. Anyway sorry about the slip-up, I did see Tree Pipits.
On Sat about 8am I went to Ynys-Hir in lovely sunshine just to listen to the birdsong without any traffic noise and hoping to see a lesser-spotted Woodpecker. Just past the rather ill-mannered "Shut the Gate Horses" sign (what happened to Please?), I met up with a visiting couple who were also looking for the Lesser and spent a very enjoyable hour or so in their company. I showed the drumming post that the bird seemed to favour last year and about 20mins later it flew into exactly the spot and proceeded to entertain us for about 10-15 mins. It went up and down the trunk giving out all sorts of different notes giving a real performance lets hope it was successful.
There were two singing Redstarts in the same area and lots of Blackcaps (sic. Sunday), Chiff-Chaff and Willow Warblers. I strolled home at about 10am to a lovely breakfast of fresh chive scrambled eggs before a hard day's work in the garden.
I repeated the trip on Sunday and heard the lesser pecker but didn't see it and frequently had Greater drumming as well, saw the Redstarts etc. On my walk back along the path behind the visitor centre I though I heard a very noisy Garden Warbler. The song just went on and on. When I tracked it down it turned out to be two Blackcaps perched about 3" apart singing very agitatedly at each other in competition for a lone female which perched a discrete 2 feet away watching the display, this went on for several minuits before they all flew off. I didn't see if she chose one of the combatants or opted for a quieter option, it was all a bit like Saturday night in Machynlleth.