6.15am start at Flashes
Dave J was already at the Flashes, so I decided to hit the Hen pool. Immediately a dark shape below the hide turned into an adult water rail a second bird was chased away but it too ended up being an adult
water rail. Still nice to see though, but I was hoping for something rarer as Gazza had just texted that he had seen the Baillon's in London.
Onto the lagoons where several snipe and green sands fed in the saucer, gulley and central area. Another water rail (juv) fed by the insect tent and an adult was in front of the oaktree. Most of the waterfowl, gulls and roosting waders had already departed from their roost. But there was still a scattering of duck, mostly teal. As the sun rose birding was difficult and most birds on the lagoons were in silhouette.
It's now that 'hedge watch' comes in to its own, as the sun warms up the bushes and the associated insects appear. Reed buntings are intent on chasing everything that moves and a game of tig ensues amongst all the other species.
Today's warm settled conditions, were less than favourable for any 'vis mig'. However a few
meadow pipits did sneak through with a few stopping off to feed in the long vegetation and even perch in the scrub. A few
swallows and the odd
sand martin also moved through but this was as good as it got.
A few warblers still frequented the scrubby areas, namely
blackcap and
chiffchaff, with
sedge and
reed warblers in the reeds.
The pick of the birds was the juv
redstart that appeared on the fox fencing' and then became elusive. Fortunately it appeared a couple of hours later on the post in front of the hide, that had just been vacated by a posing kingfisher. Oh yes the
Osprey continued to bring fish back to its perch.
Not a bad 9 hours that were spent entirely at the Flashes and listed 60 species at least.
Species count (highlights)
Teal 130, gadwall, pintail, shoveler 5, tufted 5 juvs and an adult, Osprey, Buzzard 9, kestrel 2, water rail 5 min, lapwing 30+, snipe 12, green sand 11, common sand, curlew 6, dunlin, stock dove 50+, little owl, kingfisher 2, green and great spotted woodpecker, swallow 12, sand martin , house martin 30+, reed warbler, sedge warbler 2, blackcap 4, chiffchaff 3, Redstart, meadow pipit 10+, grey wag, pied wag 10+, starling 12, goldfinch 40+, linnet 18 (several juvs), bullfinch, reed bunting 20+.
B
john
also at least 5 red admirals and lots of dragonflies.
