Ticking over

If you had told me at the start of April that I could add Great Blue Heron and Hudsonian Godwit to my British list by the month's end I'd have taken it, but I would scarcely have believed it possible. While both these birds were an unexpected bonus, April was always going to be a good month for boosting the 2015 photo yearlist, folly that it is. I say folly on the basis that I was never going to get to an impressive, let alone a record breaking, tally. But having cruised past 150, 200 now looks eminently achievable. In fact, I would be disappointed not to get to this landmark; delighted to get to 250; and to reach 300, well, I would either have to be unemployed, or divorced, and probably both. So perhaps best not to aspire to that as a target...Anyway, after the veritable tick-fest which was the Somerset Levels on Saturday, Sunday was spent with the family, participating in the Great Dorset Beach Clean, followed by more leisurely pursuit of a few returning migrants around Purbeck:

Nightingale (#161)

Two Reed Warblers (#162) were singing close together in a small reedbed on Studland

After some verbal jousting, they came together and became locked in mortal combat

The bird on the left established its superiority, almost drowning the bird on the right

The dominant bird flew off, leaving this one battered - but still alive

Common Whitethroat (#163)

Oh, and a late one from Friday night: Black Redstart (#164) at Swineham - a patch tick (cheers Marcus) sandwiched between 2 lifers in successive weekends - not a bad spell!