Longest day

A quick march around all the main lakes from 08:30, heard Oystercatcher on Sandford, but couldn't see one, no sign of any Gadwall, so they are either hiding, or lost all their young. Plenty of Common Tern and Black-headed Gull chicks here, Tufted Ducks looking interested, plus Grey Wagtail over.

At Lavell's 2 Ring-necked Parakeet over, no sign of Little Grebes and it is evident they lost all their young, which is a really big shame, again several terns and Bh gull chicks.

LFGP had 20-30+ Lapwing, some juveniles, a Little-ringed Plover from who knows where? The pair of eclipse Shoveler, a good number of tern and BH gull chicks, singing Skylark at the back, making 82 species for the month, the third highest in June, unless someone has heard or seen Lesser Whitethroat, Nuthatch, or Coal Tit and any other waders?

On Tern Scrape a doe and her foal wandered around nibbling in the deep Crassula

Will I ever see my patch again

Tough times right now and earning money is a priority, so I am unable to get to my beloved patch still.

So I will be creating a new side bar hoping to see my excess Birding Worlds from years 2003 to 2007, which had been intended for selling on my mobile twitch cafe bar business, which never got off the ground.

Anyway there are 5 copies of each year, all in immaculate condition, packaged up in individual years. Worth £49.00 for each year, I'll take £15.00 per year, or all 300 magazines for £200.00 if anyone in second hand journals wants them?

Home to see a nice sunset

Am keen to go and see the Gadwall young on Sandford and Terns on all the lakes, but for now all I can post is my photo from the garden of last nights spectacular sunset, which I only just caught.

 

Oh yes, one more thing, on this day in 1983 I saw 9 Little Terns fly thru chased off by Common Terns at 07:00, and a month later a single Little Tern on Sandford from 07:20 to 07:30 only......always worth getting up early if you can!

Harlyn Bay

Saturday morning and a walk along the path above the South cliffs of Harlyn Bay, was pleasant and rather scenic, a Rock Pipit sat for a few moments, in the field behind 40+ Linnet fed in the sprawling yellow flowers. I couldn't decide if portrait or landscape captured the beach view better?Some of the local flowers are vivid pinks. Earlier from the sofa I watched 500-1000 Manx Shearwater go by.

Off patch chill pill

I brought the family down to Cornwall for a long weekend, arriving late afternoon yesteday, I am very pleased with the location and view from our lounge.

Apart from it being a great view, the other excellent benefit is being able to sea watch from the sofa, so far I have had 200+ Manx Shearwater, 30+ Kittiwake, obviously loads of Gannet, 10+ Razorbill, Oystercatchers, a few tern sp and an Arctic Skua a few moments ago......nice and just what I needed! ;0)

Utter contempt for wildlife and nesting birds

As  I walked down the Loddon, I could hear the breaking of branches, then saw the resident gardener and another person pulling at the huge stick pile created last year, showing no regard for wildlife and nesting birds.

But to my horror as I walked back I could see they had decided that was too much hard work and just set alight to it, flames rising 20+ feet into the trees, note the Alder either side which often has Great Spotted Woodpecker and Treecreeper nesting in them.

I am speechless with anger at the contempt for nature and just wish there was a proper law against this mindless action, when they could have done this in February, even March and it probably wouldn't have hurt, but even then maybe Hedgehogs might have been in there.

Lovely weather

I watch the Oxon blog all the time and think how lovely it would be to have a flood meadow like Port Meadow, where wader passage is amazing and winter flocks are fab too, or maybe an Otmoor, or a Farmoor, where rarities appear with unfair regularity, even now Otmoor has Bearded Tit and Marsh Harrier.
But we don't have anything like these sites, nor the geography that must have a lot to do with it, so we must be grateful for our humble little patch.

Apart from the later passage of Swifts, Swallows and House Martin, it has gone very quiet and currently not looking like we have Oystercatcher trying again, one piece of great news was successful Little Grebes at Lavell's, which is the fifth attempt in 5 years, 2 definite successful years, 1 possible, 2 failed due to flooding, I was hoping to grab a picture the other late morning, but they were no doubt hiding under the trees, so took scenery shot of Lavell's car park meadow, which looked very nice with swathes of yellow...buttercups?

Off patch about 10 days or so ago, I threw out bread rolls in my garden near dusk and shortly after my wife called me to the kitchen to see our first Mallard in the garden, they go over all the time from Woodford Park at dusk, but this is the first on the deck.