The last two days have been spent birding
Grove in the morning and then popping in to Restharrow on the way home. There
has not been anything new to write about as such, the juvenile Purple Heron is
still roosting at Grove and flying out towards Marshside a couple of minutes
later each day, 5.37 yesterday 5.39 today. The 5 Garganey are still on the pool
from the Ramp as is the singe Ruff. Little Egret numbers fluctuate with 22
yesterday and 16 today. A Black-tailed Godwit has been appearing with the
Ducks, Lapwing and the Ruff on the spit as is 1-3 Green Sandpipers; there is
also a 1 sometimes 2 Wigeon present. Passing by Feast hide toady I could hear
Bearded Tits but they remained out of sight and when I got to the Harrison’s
Drove cross over the Wheatear that was present yesterday was still in the first
field and while watching this bird I came across 2 Whinchats, the first ones
here this Autumn, fortunately we had three spring records with 2 males and a
female, a very scarce bird in the spring.
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| Whinchat |
Two Ring-necked Parakeets were
calling from the bottom of Harrison’s Drove and at the top end by the river the
trees and bushes were alive with migrant Warblers including % or 6 Willow
Warblers, several Chiffchaffs, A few Whitethroats, Reed and Sedge Warblers plus
mixed in with them several Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tits.
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| Reed Warbler |
The Water Meadows
are drying up a bit now and there was no sign today of any Wood Sandpipers,
there were three yesterday, only 1 Common Sandpiper, 4 Green Sandpipers, 1
Greenshank and 2 Black-tailed Godwits. At the lake in Stodmarsh I spent some
time looking for the Great-white Egret that had been sowing well (albeit distant)
there yesterday but, there was no sign of it in the hour I was there and all
the lake held save a few common Ducks, were 2 Great-crested Grebes, 3 Pochards
and a Great Black-backed Gull on the Tern raft although 300+ Greylag Geese did
fly over.
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| Great-white Egret |
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| Green Woodpecker |
There were 2 Kingfishers immediatley in front of Marsh hide but with no fishing perces availble they rested on reeds and were obscured most of the time.
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| Kingfisher |
There was more migrant Warblers along the path from Marsh hide to
Harrison’s that again included Reed and Sedge, Chiffchaff and Whitethroat plus
a couple of Lesser Whitethroats and on reaching the fields I’d earlier had the
Whinchats there was now 3 Whinchats and 2 Wheatears. Dropping in on Restharrow
has produced very little with the Garganey still there but no sign of the Wood
Sand but there was a Little-ringed Plover both times. The best thing, however,
today was meeting a onetime birding and twitching colleague who moved to
Cornwall back in the early 2000’s and that was Dave Allen with his wife, we had
a good catch up talking about new patches and memorable twitches
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| Starling |
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| Migrant Hawker |
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