I thought it was about time I started
updating some information from around ‘the patch’ as I has been a while with
not a lot to write about unless, anybody is interested in numbers of Reed Warblers,
Sedge Warblers, Whitethroats, Coots and Moorhens etc. Now the summer!! Is passing
us by and some of the early returning waders are starting to arrive it is now
time to put cyber pen to cyber paper, as it were. Arriving this morning at 5.45am
a Turtle Dove was purring in the Paddocks as I entered the reserve and, during
the morning I saw a further 4, there were only 4 Cetti’s Warblers heard today
whereas yesterday there were 9 and the Marsh Harriers were very slow to arise
with just one female out early doors, there were 7 adult birds yesterday plus 3
juveniles around Marsh hide area but, an early Hobby flew towards Stodmarsh at
5.45am. Eventually I counted 8 Marsh Harriers including only 2 juveniles plus 3
Little Egrets, 2 Cuckoo’s, 2 Linnets, 3 Grey Herons and still plenty of Reed
and Sedge Warblers singing and feeding young. Whitethroats, Blackcaps and
Chiffchaffs were all encountered long the river and at the Water Meadows there
were 17 Green Sandpipers, 46 Gadwall, 5 Teal, 1 Water Rail and 30 Lapwings (1
chick). Also while standing by the bench at the Water Meadows I saw a Beaver
swim across the river from the far side. A lot of time was spent on the Lampen
Wall looking over the lake where there were 20 Common Terns, 18 Pochards (4
females), 5 Tufted Ducks, 5 Great-crested Grebes, a further 21 Teal that flew
through and landed on the lake behind the far reeds and a flyover Greenshank.
Steve Ashton and Andy Hills joined me and we made attempts to capture Common
Terns on our digital photographic equipment and while in this process Bernie
Weight joined us freshly back from six weeks in the south of France.
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| Common Tern |
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| Common Tern |
Swifts and
hirrundines were less noticeable today whereas yesterday several hundred Swifts
(300+) passed through westwards during the early hours and plenty of Sand
Martins were around although the Swifts did eventually start gathering over
Collard’s, I only noted 5 Swallows and the odd Sand Martin. We did see another
Hobby twice, as well as 2 Sparrowhawks and 3 3cy Great Black-backed Gulls that
landed on the lake for a short while, Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-backed
Gulls were passing through all morning and even half a dozen Black-headed Gulls
put in an appearance. Heading back towards the Water Meadows we had a fairly
close Cuckoo fly by while along the river bank we tried to locate some odanata
finding a few Banded Demoiselles, a Black-tailed Skimmer and a few Damselflies
we didn’t bother to id!
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| Cuckoo |
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| Cuckoo |
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| Banded Demoiselle female |
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| Black-tailed Skimmer |
At the Water Meadows the Green Sandpipers were now 10
but the earlier Greenshank was present as were 2 Little-ringed Plovers, and
adult and a juvenile plus a juvenile Pied Wagtail. Back on the Ramp there was
an arrival of 68 Black-tailed Godwits whilst 1 Kestrel and a distant Common
Buzzard were noted.
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| Part of the flock of 68 Black-tailed Godwit from the Ramp |
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| Just managed to capture a part of this Jay as it flew by fairly close!!!! |
