A visit today between 8.am-10.am still that cold northeast and cloud first thing but then slowly clearing.
As I walked under the bridge at Brookland I could hear the now familiar song of Blackcap and Cetti`s Warbler.The river from the small wood revealed 2 Shelduck,3 Coot,6 Mallard and 2 Herring Gulls.I then walked round the sunken marsh where a Chiffchaff,2 Cetti`s and 2 Bullfinch were seen and my first Cuckoo of the spring,it or another was heard a little while later across the river at Burham.I then walked on through the hawthorns,first stopping to look at the river again in the area of Eccles creek,no Oystercatchers today,just 2 Herring Gulls and 1 Stock Dove.Two more Bullfinches, 2 Blackcaps,2 Chiffs and 2 L T Tits followed but no sign of the Lesser Whitethroat that was first seen a few days ago.I then had a look at Abbey Mead where there was a few Swallows,Sand Martins and 2 House Martin and at least 20 Tufted Duck, 8 Coot,2 G C Grebe and 4 Mallard.The east and west scrub Willow warblers were still in full song but other than that I just had 1 Song Thrush,1 Green Woodpecker,a Blackbird and a few Great and Blue tits.However just as a came out of the west scrub I caught sight of two birds flying quickly through over towards Abbey Mead,I at first took them to be Terns but when I looked through my bins I had thoughts of Little Gull.I then ran or walked as fast as my ageing legs would carry me back to Abbey Mead and there amongst a small flock of B h Gulls was indeed two Little Gulls,rather disappointingly though they kept just out of camera range but I did manage a few record shots.Then when I was nearly back at the car in the reeds quite close to the fishermens hut I heard and saw a Sedge Warbler.Quite a nice improvement over the last few days,roll on the weekend when the wind is due to change.
I met Eddie Denson at the start of my walk,he had just completed his (an early riser) he told me that yesterday he had seen a male Marsh Harrier flying down the river at 6.30am.

No Nightingales or Whitethroats were heard this morning.