A super walk with Angela T, Hazel and Sharon J along the Downslink to Stretham and back along the river , kicking off with Goldcrest and Nightingale right at the start, then we heard strange sounds coming from a hole in a tree, stood watching for a while and then a Great Spot came shooting out, so it must have been feeding nestlings. In the field to the right we saw a Kestrel hovering, and had good views of a Whitethroat, which appeared to be carrying a feather for nest-building – a notch up on the BirdTrack data. Hazel heard a distant Cuckoo to the east, and on the fields were Mallards, Little Egrets and rather surprisingly a pair of Shelducks. There was also a group of what looked like juvenile wildfowl with them, but they weren’t right for Shelduck young, just plain brown, so maybe a group of well grown Mallard ducklings. Though we tried they had scuttled off into the grass and we couldn’t find them again. A Mute Swan was on a nest on the far side of the field, one pair of Greylag Geese had 4 goslings, we heard Reed Warbler and Reed Bunting song, saw a Swallow and two House Martins over the fields, but – oh joy – at least a dozen Swifts overhead, with those lovely screaming sounds of summer. At the heronry there was quite a lot of noise and activity and, as Mike noted from his walk, now two Little Egret nests, though one was more hidden.

Breezier and quieter along the riverbank, though we added Linnet and a Cetti’s Warbler near the overflow pit, which also held another singing Reed Warbler, and as we neared New Inn a Green Woodpecker called, we heard the Rooks from the rookery near Sharon’s and saw the only Buzzard of the day.

BirdTrack tells me we saw 48 different species. How could we have walked so far and not picked up Great Tit or Nuthatch?