Ballachurry Reserve, 5th April 2018.

Another couple of months and it
will be hard to see the stream for vegetation.

It was lovely to walk round the Reserve in the sunshine on Thursday afternoon. Plenty of bird life and some invertebrates too. The visit left me rather perplexed though - was I still seeing Chiffchaffs or were they Willow Warblers? Nothing was saying Chiffchaff, that's for sure, but the calls I heard were not the usual falling away tunes of the Willow Warblers either. Was something else that I didn't manage to spot hiding in the branches nearby? Still, I did get some photos, so perhaps "higher authority" will come to my rescue. In the meantime I'll call them Willchaffs and change the photo captions and records once I am better informed.

Birds: 

SC209693  Great Tit
SC208694   (Willows/ Compost area) Great Tit; 3 x Long Tailed Tit; male Blackbird; 2 x Willow Warbler*; Blue Tit.
SC208695 ( old beehive loop)  Wren; male Chaffinch;
SC209694 ( main path to hide) Great Tit; 2 x Willow Warbler;
SC208694 ( boardwalk/ reed bed) Wren; 3 x Mallard ( 2 male, 1 female)
SC209695 ( near private entrance) Robin
SC209694 ( path junction) Robin; 3 x Long Tailed Tit; Willow Warbler.
* at first I thought one of these birds was quietly dozing in the sunshine but it became apparent that the often closed eye had an injury. The other one of the pair was doing a lot of tail and wing flicking each time it landed on a branch - one of the factors that made me wonder if it was a Willow Warbler rather than a Chiffchaff. (Thanks to Neil Morris, manxbirdlife.im, for confirming IDs as Willow Warblers)

Other:

SC209695 7-spot Ladybird still in the gorse bush ( although it took me some time to find it)
SC209694 (under carpet near hide and near Ginnie's bench) a variety of small snails, worms, slugs, White legged snake millipedes, a Polydesmus angustus millipede and a few Pill Millipedes ( or are they pill woodlice? no one seems to be able to explain how to distinguish between the two!)
SC210694 Garden Snail still there
SC210694 garden escape Muscari ( Grape Hyacinth) in flower
SC210694 still plenty of berries for  the birds on the Ivy
SC209694 Eristalis pertinax Hoverfly on cultivated daffodil

Ivy berries are great bird food

Garden escape Muscari with native Lesser Celandine
- a great colour combination!

snoozing garden snail

White legged snake millipede, pill millipede? and
unidentified snail

close-up once the Snake Millipede had walked off

Polydesmus angustus  and Pill Millipede

unidentified slug and worm
pill millipede

 unidentified moth inside hide
(2 flew out the door as I opened it)

7-spot Ladybird

Eristalis pertinax Hoverfly
( hope I've got this right, Steve?)

Chaffinch singing its heart out

Robin

one of three Mallard near the compost area

Wren - often near the boardwalk

Willow Warbler
Injured eye

close-up of the eye
it did open it occasionally
and the one the other side was permanently open

a different bird -  Willow Warbler

Willow Warbler

Willow Warbler

a favourite view of the reserve

As I photographed the willow buds I wondered
where this plane was going. Whatever the destination, I did not wish
to change places with the passengers in their enclosed, cramped cabin
- give me the fresh air and the birdsong every time!

Next post will be the Work Party photos but signing off for now.