Peering out of my curtains at 06:00 "err where's the cloud and rain" I said to myself.
A quick peek at BSL, nothing happening but 3 Little Egret upstream from the sailing club bridge and I could hear the Lesser Whitethroat in the car park field.
I called at Jack's and off we set at 06:25 for Lea Farm G.P. As we entered the enclosure I was opening the hide gate and a bird took my attention at the top of an Alder. I binned and got the huge 'super' ..."Whinchat" I pronounced and went to scope while Jack clicked away on his camera.
For about 40-45 seconds there it perched, what a beauty.
And we hadn't even entered the hide!
In we went and quickly scanning the SW corner....there were no waders whatsoever! But 10 seconds later "Black Terns" I shouted ...."5, 6 no 7 Black Terns!"
They were as the species always is, highly active sweeping back and forth over the lake, WhatsApp messages sent, we waited but barely 8 minutes and the tern vanished. Brian arrived and we kept checking just in case they returned. Jack has a few shots I'll share when he sends them over.
At 07:26 I heard the highly distinctive "Tu Tu" and called "Greenshank" as it dropped into the SW corner. Just one half decent shot achieved
Moving on we headed to BSL in case an Arctic Tern or Little Gull was around, no joy but we instantly got on the 7 Black Tern on the West side. Even more mobile they spiraled up to 1000 feet and I lost them heading SE.
A few bursts of Nightingale, lots of Garden Warbler song, Cuckoo in support, all amounted to a special morning for my birthday.
Back from a late afternoon sneaky peek and no massive changes, except a distant Hobby at the South end of BSL leaves no further 'expected' migrants for the year list.
No comments:
Post a Comment