A nice hobby!

One of the sounds of Summer is always said to be the gentle purring of the turtle dove. In recent years though their population has plummeted, due to habitat loss here, in their wintering grounds in Africa and the slaughter as they pass over the Med. In Herts you used be able to track down a few pairs. but now they have totally been lost as a breeding species. The nearest reserve to me where I know you can get them is Fowlmere in Cambridgeshire. This is a small reserve, basically a lake with reedbeds and woodlands surrounded by mixed farmland. They have 3 or 4 pairs of turtle doves nesting each year.
I wasn't early arriving as I had a lie-in so I was bit concerned I might have missed them before they left the reserve to go and feed in the fields. I was lucky though. As I walked out of the car park towards the Draper hide you could one calling from the woods, the gentle purring call suiting ideally the pastoral scene. I was really lucky though as I caught one brief view of it flying and then that was it. For the next two hours on the reserve you heard nothing, presumably as they had left to go and feed.
That didn't mean there was nothing else to see though. From one of the hides a dabchick was looking after its sole baby, lurking in the reeds.

The bushes were alive with warbler song - garden warblers, blackcaps, Cetti's warblers, reed and sedge warblers and chiffchaffs and willow warblers. Most of them were lurking as the day warmed up but both this chiffchaff and a reed warbler were close enough to get a photo.

Finally, over the reed bed two raptors were plying their trade. A part of marsh harriers were clearly nesting and kept dropping in and out of the same area of the reeds, presumably where they young were.

 There were also 3 or possibly 4 hobbies hawking for dragonflies. They were particularly active but as they normally are where a tricky subject to photograph. They dart left and right at great speed chasing there prey and t lock onto them is really hard. These are not therefore great photos but I will go back and try later for better ones, possibly earlier in the morning.

Not a bad day but slightly disappointing. Next time I will have to get up earlier and get there after dawn to get the turtle doves. Early bird catches the worm after all.....