Adel Dam Nature Reserve

On Saturday morning we took Maureen along to Adel Dam Nature Reserve. After hearing that she'd never seen a Woodpecker we thought it the most likely place to strike lucky. Good call....we could hear one as we approached the reserve and within a minute a Great Spotted Woodpecker was overhead, we observed it for a moment before it flew off and another appeared in a treetop less than a minute afterwards, mission accomplished.


So with the pressure off and time on our side, we spent a wee while in the first hide where we spotted three Peacock butterflies alternately basking in a Willow tree and landing on the ground in front of us, although nearer they were too obscured by foliage to get a decent pic. I remember seeing one or two Peacocks last year in the same spot. Also on the feeders, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Chaffinch, Robin and an unexpected Reed Bunting which I haven't seen here before.



We walked round to the lakeside hide where a handful of Teal, Mallards & Coot occupied the lake, and a Long Tailed Tit was busy collecting nesting material in front of the hide. Continuing on through the reserve we spotted this woodland songbird that we think might be a Chiffchaff. I understand the warblers are difficult to identify by sight, so having listened a recording I'm pretty confident it sounded most like the bird we heard.