Vis Mig
Spent nearly 7hours on site today, started just before 9 at he Moors. Continuous heavy rain and only stopped at 12.20pm. strong NE only dropping in force when rain stopped. Stayed in East hide accompanied by Dave J and Alan H for most of the time.
A good number of Swallows c200, flew low above the water making for easy RR swallow elimination.Only a couple of sand martin but 30 or 40 house martins were in tow and my first swifts (3) of the year were also seen. At 9.25 a dull
yellow wag appeared in front on the shingle island then moved to the near grassy bank, only a few minutes later it flew off north. Two females then appeared at 10.20 for a few minutes again heading north, followed by two spanking males. These lingered for a while before moving off north. At 10.47 an
Arctic tern dropped in accompanied by 3
common tern. Dave J had gone to the Flashes but the 8
Black Tailed godwits had moved off but he did find another arctic tern that pretty soon joined our bird. Alan H told me that in the log book at the Flashes there was a Short eared owl listed for last night, thinking nothing more of it I continued birding and found the 6th Yellow wag of the day, a male that flew off north and then came back and stayed a while.
To add to the 'vis mig' vibe, 2 of the common sands and the LRP at the Moors flew north during the rains.
Just after at 12.37 I received a call from John R, saying a
Short eared owl was flying high over the masts at the Flashes:eek!:. Unfortunately I couldn't see it from the east hide, oh well the one that got away. To add insult to injury, Andy P Phoned 2 minutes later saying it was at the back of the Flashes hide at eye level. I made a dash to the Flashes to be told by 3 visitors that it had flown north over the farm towards the house on the hill...back to where I had just come from.:-C
I had a hunch and decided to check out our grassy triangle behind the archery field, this is the only SE owl habitat on the reserve. And yes I wasn't disappointed, there it was as it sat on top of a clump of sedge.
The bird was one of the darkest I have ever seen but some of that could be due to it being so wet. Before anyone arrived the bird flew, luckily only to a nearby post, from where it posed for the small crowd that had assembled. Ironically a loud group of what I thought were birders appeared, to inform uus that they were about to take archery lessons:eek!: the first time I have ever known anyone use this facility.
After being flushed a couple times the bird settled down to perform.
Later a
7th Yellow wagtail flew over the flashes hide going west. Another was seen at 3pm and I have since heard from Jason K that there is a
wheatear at the Moors west path.
Oh well looks like spring has at last begun8-P
3 record and I mean record shots from today.B
John
Just to temper our excitement somewhat a fox was seen inside the 'fence' along the 2nd flash east shore