This first week of summer has seen generally cooler weather, occasional drizzle and some heavy overnight rain. The focus has been on our breeding birds, with at least six broods of Black-necked Grebe appearing, with many more still on nests. Pochard broods are also beginning to emerge, with three recorded so far, along with two of Shelduck, one each on Nos.3 and 4 beds. Most days saw two male Garganey right below the Morgan Hide on No.3 bed, with a female also reported on Monday. Unfortunately, one Shelduck pair, with its five young has now adopted the Morgan Hide scrape as its own territory and won’t tolerate the presence of the Garganey or the 145 Gadwall which like to feed in the shallow waters of the scrape. Cuckoo is now a daily sight, with a male calling from various perches around the bed, while a late Greenshank was feeding on No.4 bed on Thursday. After completing our counts on No.3 bed this morning we decided to travel across Warrington to Daresbury, to see the Woodchat Shrike which has been present since Wednesdays. Woodchats are a migratory species which breed in Southern Europe, winter across Central Africa and are a vagrant to the UK. As with all shrikes, they are predatory, feeding mainly on Beetles and other large insects and occasionally taking small mammals and lizards. We had excellent views and watched it hunting for a good while before a shower drove it to shelter. Photo of a Whitethroat Cheers David Bowman (with Dan Owen, Helen Wynn and Sue Haddock)

As summer arrives, we say goodbye to what has been an outstanding spring at Woolston Eyes. The good weather and frequent easterly winds have brought in an exceptional variety of migrants, bringing our year list up to 149 species already. It also looks like being our best ever year for breeding Black-necked Grebes, with around 30 pairs nesting and at least four broods already appearing on No.4 bed. Other broods have included our first of Pochard and Shelduck, hopefully with plenty more to come. A nice bonus has been the arrival of several Cuckoos, appearing on both Nos.3 and 4 beds, while two drake Garganey have been daily sightings in front of the Morgan Hide. The following link is to a short video showing the Garganey plus a few other species. https://youtu.be/5_ooxFdYLRI Cheers David