Tuesday 2nd July 2024 - Caen Hill Locks, Devizes

Today Bryan and Tony visited Caen Hill locks nr Devizes as we were told last Saturday that Sedge Warblers had been seen there and it would be a year tick for both of us if we could find them.

On arrival in the car park we immediately spotted four or five Black Headed Gulls sat by the water with others flying around and also several Mallards now in eclipse plumage on one of the many ponds, we found 50+ during our visit. As we drank our coffee Woodpigeon, Lesser Black Back Gull and Goldfinch flew past with the LBBG harrying a Red Kite. As we walked towards the 1st pond a Wren flew along the bankside and a Magpie was on the grass in the distance. I then heard a part call that I knew was Sedge Warbler and when we got to a good vantage point we found three of four birds at least one was a juvenile as it was being fed, our hoped for species seen within 30 minutes of arriving. To early to leave so we walked on where a flyover Buzzard led us on to a few Swifts flying close by. A Grey Heron was our next sighting followed by a Moorhen with 2 chicks. A Carrion Crow was sat in the top of a tree and 3 Stock Doves flew past and disappeared into the distance. 

Carrion Crow - Caen Locks (Bath Birdwatcher)
 

As we continued down the row of ponds that feed the locks on the canal 2 Swallows flew over and a female Kestrel was hanging into the wind not moving a limb or wing. We then heard another familiar call a Reed Warbler and we were able to walk past it as it was singing below us in the reeds but from a vantage point by the canal Bryan found it clinging to a reed stem. Towards the bottom of the line of ponds were 2 Mute Swans and these proved to be the last sightings of the morning even though we walked through an area of fairly newly planted trees we could head Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs but none were too show. We did find 3 species of Butterfly Meadow Brown, Ringlet and probably small white but none of the 3 we saw stopped so we could not positively identify them. Quite a poor morning for species but we did find the bird that we had set out to find so not a disaster.  However a few butterflies apart insect life was very poor except for flies but we did find this single Dragonfly.

Dragonfly - Caen Locks (Bath Birdwatcher)


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