I awoke to heavy rain at
3.10am on Saturday morning but, it had fizzled out by 3.50am and when I left
home it was clear skies so I didn’t expect much to be seen at Grove. On
entering the valley I came across thick fog and from 5.30am until 7.30am it was
Impossible to view anything that didn’t fly over, four Little Egrets did just
that heading north and a Spotted Redshank and a Greenshank were heard but
remained unseen throughout the day. The fog tried to lift a couple of times and
silhouettes of many ducks and geese were to be seen on the Ramp pool and with
them a further 2 Little Egrets. Even when the sun did manage to break through
it gave an awful glare over the pool with a veil of fog still hampering viewing
so, along with Alan Ashdown and Sue Morton we headed to the Feast hide to get
the sun behind us and hopefully see some birds. Nineteen Canada Geese left the
Ramp pool just before us and numerous Greylags had already left noisily but
mostly unseen in the murk. Not a great deal at Feast hide although there was an
eclipse drake Mandarin on the Tern raft and a Sparrowhawk passed over the trees
opposite. Next stop was Harrison’s hide where we hoped to see the Spotted Crake
I found last week but, after about 20 minutes 2 Water Rails and a Little Egret,
people began to fill the hide so we left them to it and headed off to the Marsh
hide. Lots of water and lots of greenery here but no birds although a juvenile
male Sparrowhawk almost flew through the side window of the hide before
clocking me sitting there and flipped over the hide and buzzed past the front
windows before alighting in a tree 50 yards away along the path. Nothing to
report from either the Alder Wood or Reed Bed hide and the lake only had a few
Mallard and Shoveler floating about on it, a Kingfisher did buzz by on a
direction towards the Reed Bed hide. A yard or so past the Lake Tower hide in a
nice sheltered sun trap we started to look for the Willow Emerald Damselfly
that had been found there last week by Keith Ross and amazingly Sue found
almost immediately. Whilst we were watching and photographing this first for
the Stour Valley Alan Ashdown found another close by then proceeded to find
another 3 including 1 male, we, now joined by David Barnes who confirmed that
what we were seeing was the Willow Emeralds and not just the more common
Emerald Damselfly. So the one found last week was now five so I wouldn’t mind
betting there is probably more giving us a nice new colony of rare bugs. Back
at Feast hide without adding along the river bank, the Mandarin was now swimming
and feeding and a few hirrundines were noted including the biggest amount of
House Martins I’ve seen all year with at least 130 moving through plus a dozen
Swallows and 7 Sand Martins. From the Ramp there was 1 Ruff, 1 Black-tailed
Godwit, 1 Wigeon, 1 Pintail and 2 Garganey while returning yet again to the
Feast hide to keep Andy Hills company the Kingfisher put on a display of her
fish catching prowess and a Hobby passed through. Sunday was less of a birdy
day with an hour at Harrison’s not revealing the Spotted Crake so has it moved
on? The Spotted Redshank and Greenshank heard again in a very much less fog and
this time the Greenshank actually broke
cover, the Mandarin was still at Feast hide until a low Common Buzzard flew
over and flushed the lot. Eight plus Yellow Wagtails were in the fields behind
Harrison’s with the cows and finishing the morning on the Ramp , Sue joined us
for a little while with her dog just as an adult dark phase Honey Buzzard passed
over to the south east. The Wigeon were now three but there was no sign of any
Garganey before Alan and I left. It was nice to see and chat with Steve Ashton,
freshly back from two weeks in Cyprus. A few of the photos below.
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| Female Kingfisher |
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| Female Kingfisher |
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| Female Kingfisher |
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| Female Kingfisher |
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| Eclipse drake Mandarin |
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| Eclipse drake Mandarin |
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| Migrant Hawker |
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| Speckled Wood |
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| Willow Emerald Damselfly |
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| Willow Emerald Damselfly |
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| Willow Emerald Damselfly (male) |
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| Willow Emerald Damselfly |
