Against any likelihood, I was excited to hear from Brian telling me a Pied Flycatcher was seen by Andy Merrick at the North end of Mortimer's Meadow.
Many of our more recent members and users of WhatsApp might well be wondering where the hell 'Mortimer's' is. It's immediately West of the Loddon parallel with White Swan Lake and The Bader Way to the West, it was once devoid of vegetation and no doubt ancient flood meadow.
For just 2 years 1983 and 1984 it was heaven, Dinton had it ploughed and in February and early March was the time to check it, Rock Pipit, Water Pipit, Wheatear, Redshank, Little-ringed Plover & Ringed Plover. It was darn good for Whinchat in the autumn too.
Sadly WBC had it landscaped, drainage seams dug in and planted tons of trees. Then millions of dog walkers came and all in all, we gave up watching the area, my last Whinchat's there were 7th Sept 2002, Brian finding them 3 day earlier.
So back to modern times, Andy Merrick found the juvenile Pied Flycatcher at the Northern end of the meadow in a copse out in the middle and it also had a Spotted Flycatcher in there too.
It occurred to me that with cattle grazing and so much hedgerow and scrub, we should spend more time there looking for Redstart and with so much dead wood I'd bet we've already missed Wryneck in there...it's a big area, but Andy proved if you keep checking stuff turns up.
This places me on 134, my fourth highest year total. No sign of Curlew, Redstart, Little Owl and various other bits that could show up.
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