Tophill Low,A Superb Day Out,Sunday 3rd April 2016.

A full day out planned today,saw myself and Mike meeting up at another 'New' site to add to his list of excellent birding venues,the following account is what we recorded throughout the day.
 As it began to get light properly,i began to get the gear together and when Mike arrived,we started proceedings by heading around the northern half of the reserve first.
 A few niceties around the car park to start,included a Great-spotted Woodpecker and 3 Siskin,the male of this trio of stunning finches trying his best to impress the two females with his wheezy attempts at singing.
 We headed down the side of 'D' Res first and through 'D' Woods quickly adding two nice birds to the day and year list.The first was a female Brambling watched flycatching in the canopy of the trees in the company of a hand full of Chaffinches,views wern't brilliant,but beggars can't be choosers and it was a decent sighting all the same.The second goodie was a male Blackcap,fresh in from Africa and at first fed in a similar fashion to the Brambling,up in the canopy,before dropping lower down and showing nicely through the bins.Blackcap's as Chiffchaff,are more and more a feature of our milder winters in the UK,but still the majority make the long journey south to Africa.
 Also in 'D' Woods,at least 5 Chiffchaff sang and a Doe Roe Deer quickly disappeared as we approached,nice sightings to add to the notebook.
 A look on 'D' Res itself at the northern end,revealed a feeding flock of at least 119 Sand Martin and another 2 firsts for the year in the form of 2 House Martin and 6 Swallow.What a great sight it was to watch this hirundine flock and they showed very well at relatively close range.
 We continued down towards Hempholme Meadow and then the Lock itself,with another highlight added here,with a pair of Red-crested Pochard seen on the river before they flew onto the small pond nearby and on the fields adjacent to the river,having the welcome sight of 5 Brown Hare and another Roe Deer.
 After enjoying the northern part of the site,we made our way back to the car and had a welcome refreshment stop before moving onto the southern part of the reserve.
 A quick look on North Lagoon revealed 36 Teal and a pair of Grey Wagtail and the explosive song of a male Cettis Warbler nearby was great to hear.The male of the pair of Grey Wags was singing and displaying to his mate,perhaps they will settle down and breed.
 We eventually made it round to the hide overlooking Watton Nature Reserve,with not that much here to add to the notebook apart from a single Little Egret,2 Grey Heron and 7 Curlew.
 After leaving the hide and walking back through South Scrub,that lovely,sweet song of a Willow Warbler greeted us.Another new spring arrival,fresh in from Africa and one of my personal favourites,it was also another new bird for Mike to go with his first Blackcap,Red-crested Pochards and Grey Wagtails....an impressive day so far for him!.
 South Marsh was the next stop and to be fair it was pretty good with more nice birds,which included 2 displaying male Little-ringed Plover,3 Ruff,9 Redshank,another singing male Cetti's Warbler and for me the birds of the day,a pair of Garganey.
 The Garganey were not particularly close,but it was great to see them all the same and again,another new species for Mike,i think he's beginning to think birding is easy.
 By now it was lunch time and Mike had to leave,so we said our goodbyes and i settled down for a while to have some lunch.
 Mr Tophill was now on his way and i was now looking forward to spending the afternoon with fellow birder and dragon addict Martin Hodges.
 We spent our time looking around the southern half of the reserve,mainly looking for insects and managed some good sightings along the way which included our first Episyrphus balteatus or Marmalade Hoverfly for the year,several species of Bumblebee which included Buff-tailed,Large Red-tailed and Common-carder.We also managed to record a couple of species of Butterfly,with singles of Small Tortoiseshell and the lovely Comma being seen.
 A real bonus for me today,but sort of expected,where at least 6 male Grass Snake,unfortunately not showing for photos due to the not ideal weather conditions,but pleasing to see all the same.
 So what an impressive day today at this superb site,with an impressive 80 species of birds recorded,including several first records for the year and with some great company,what else could you ask for in this great hobby.

Record shot of the Garganey pair on South Marsh.

Comma,near to 'O' Reservoir.