Quiet Thursday

Today LFGP had just 1 Common Sandpiper, 40-50 Lapwing, 3 Teal, no terns, 50-80 Swallow and a increase to 6 Shoveler. That was about it, shame I wasn't here around 09:05 for yesterdays Osprey.

Yellow-legged Gull

Bert called me as I was returning from shopping, etc with my son, with a probable adult Yellow-legged Gull, in a mad dash I made it to see it sat down in the SW corner. Red orbital eye ring, head shape and tone of grey all good.

It did eventually stand and showed straw coloured legs, but its primaries had no white and after input from my good friend Adam, means it is an adult with well abraded primaries....thanks Adam.

The day before on the bird walk we had 2 Swift high over LFGP, a Hobby and nice flock of Swallows and 2 Sand Martin in the car park field, both Hobby and Sand Martin being rather uncommon this year.

Good 2 hours

I got down shortly after Brian texted to say he'd not id'd 2 waders going over BSL, from his description they sounded like Ruff to me, but we'll never know.

With all the layby parking taken I went to the car park field and in moments saw an adult Hobby moving South lowish over Lavell's.

Trev and Alan joined me and we watched the sky for about an hour, before heading to the bottom of the field, where Alan got onto a Wheatear on a vent, it moved 4 times in under 10 minutes, leaving Brian just a few seconds to view it before we lost it on the near Eastern landfill cell.

I gave out the 3 July Wheatear records last month and August birds are fairly common, but it is early month birds that are not, all the pre 10th records comprise;

2nd & 6th 1984
1st 1985
7th 1987
2nd 1989
5th 2011









We counted around 50+ Swallow on the wires, then whilst scoping over LFGP I got onto 2 large black birds heading in from the NNW, they were about 600-700 yards away but even at that range their strong wing beats and large heads and bills said 'Raven' immediately and sure enough they came over just East of the car park field, meaning we had to move to the field to get better views, they were followed by a third and then a fourth, the last bird stopped short over the landfill, circled, 'tumbled' and headed off NNE, with the third after it. Alan sent me these nice record shots;

We all noted how they had their bills open frequently, but only one of us got a brief call, so wonder if they have an inaudible call too? This is the largest count of Raven so far and first August record and marked the 84th species for the month, 9 to go to equal last years record.

Greenshank brief stay

Brian called me with news of a Greenshank on SW corner of LFGP, but before I got back from the nursery run, it flew off high West at 08:40.

A walk around the car park field was pretty quiet, 4-5 Chiffchaff chasing each other, Nuthatch calling, 2 House Martin over, 1 Blackcap, a Jay perched for a moment allowing me two shots, one a fun pose of it dropping off its perch;

New month, new highs to chase

July ended up on 94 including the probable Wheatear, a total 5 higher than 89 in 2006, so was pretty darn good and with Nightingale and Ring-necked Parakeet no doubt nearby, the real figure was 96.

The August high is 93, just last year without Dunlin or Black-tailed Godwit, but included Yellow Wagtail, Black Tern and Wryneck of course. The August list so far is 75.

A brief car park field walk late morning today brought distant Ring-necked Parakeet calls, Coal Tit calling nearby too and a Little Egret flying at 300 feet but heading to BSL.

A few Swallow, 3 Swift and a handful of unidentified martins went thru in the 30 minutes I was there.

Yet more Black-tailed Godwits

Another busy morning kept me away from DP, then Geoff called with 4 Black-tailed Godwits on LFGP, but they left quite soon after and I was tied up until 11:30, when Brian called to say they were now on Sandford, staying in view until 11:55 on the old tern island.

Very quiet Friday

A very brief 07:10 trip to LFGP offered nothing, but a single Teal, although Geoff said1 LRP was present.

I was down early to meet the contractor at Tern Scrape for a mechanised approach of Crassula removal, the later inspection looked pretty good, albeit the expected bare stony mud and just the minimum Crassula remaining in absolute fringes in the reeds. The fringes will soon be hand dug and weed killer sprayed to give us back our scrape.