A few brief visits

I have been short on time to blog recently, but highlights this week have been an adult Garden Warbler in the bog Hawthorn, a couple of Whitethroat, a family of 3 Grey Wagtail in the sailing club car park..not the beach. I missed the last Black-tailed Godwit on the 5th. Up to 9 Little Egret have been seen at LFGP, a new August high count.

Today was bird walk and one or two nice things showed, first a Hobby hunting, then perched at Lavell's, offering a rare chance this year for a record shot. 1 was seen briefly later at LFGP too.

7 Shoveler on Tern scrape, was a little jump up from 2 yesterday and 1 all week, 22 Gadwall there too.

At LFGP, Alan, Geoff and others were watching a Redshank, which turns out to be only the second ever August record. Alan also informed me he had a Common Gull yesterday and if correct would be the first ever August record.

Belated photos from Andy Burns......my fault not his

One or two people asked me to post the fab photos Andy Burns took of the Mediterranean Gull and the Sanderling, as not everyone is on Facebook;

And the Sanderling

Green Sandpipers galore

When Brian sent his first text to say 7 Green Sandpiper, I thought 'nice', as the count grew from 8, to 9, 10 then finally 11, I was very interested in seeing this new record count....but I was tied up until lunchtime.

Luckily the count just kept getting bigger, Geoff counting 14, Brian and I reaching 13, 4 more than the previous record of 9/2nd August 1993.

We rarely get flocks like yesterday's, so here are the big count days for Green Sandpipers, starting with the highest;

14/3rd Aug 2015

9/4th Aug 2015
9/2nd Aug 1993

8/1st July 1993
8/4th Aug 1994
8/2nd Aug 1998

7/27th Aug 1982
7/17th Aug 1986
7/14th Mar 1993
7/21st Aug 1993
7/2nd, 13th & 28th July 1994
7/2nd Sept 1999

6/17th Aug 1985
6/4th & 30th July 1992
6/29th July & 6/1st & 4th Aug 1998
6/27th July, 6/10th Sept 1999

5/18th Aug 1982
5/14th Mar 1983
5/12th & 15th Aug 1986
5/1st & 18th Aug 1991
5/23rd & 25th June 1992
5/1st July 1994
5/27th Mar 1995
5/9th July 1995
5//14th, 27th & 28th July & 5/11th & 15th Aug 1998
5/2nd April, 5/24th July, 5/3rd to 7th Aug 1999

1999 was the last time we hit counts of 5, 6 & 7, but 4/29th December 2001 was the last time the high count got above 3...until this year. The pattern of records has been increasing again since 2006....when we got LFGP!

August a month of many stories

A two hour visit today got Nuthatch, Ring-necked Parakeet on to the month list straight away, 2 Common and 1 Green Sandpiper at LFGP was typical.

A discussion I had with Brian led me to highlight the array of Wood Warbler reports, which few long term DP listers have been able to connect with;

1/1st Aug 1982 - Reported via ROC newsletter (OU)
1/12th Aug & 13th 1983 - North Sandford )Lavell's) On Sandford Mill land for 3 mins 7.20am (FJC & DF), again 13th (Mike Collins & Kevin Templeman)
1/17th May 1984 - Singing (RJC), then 1/13th  July (MC & KT)
1/21st April 1992 - Singing just off park along Colemansmoor Road (PA et al), then another 23rd (MJ Hallam) and then 1/3rd May Sandford (Patrick Crowley)
1/22nd April 1998 - Middle Marsh (Patrick Crowley)
1/25th April 2003 - Lavell's (K Creed) and 1/9th Aug (John Tilbrook)

I guess my opinion doesn't matter, but as it's my blog I get the freedom to say what I like and I doubt a number of these records. I will look into the first report when I have time to read my old Berks reports.

I have doubts about the July 1984 record and don't know much about Patrick's records, so I'll ask him, but I don't believe Kevin's 2003 bird either.

Overall it's a messy affair.

Over the coming days I'll post more about August delights from years gone by, not all of them were delights for me.

July Sanderling!

I was about to restart my pc when I noticed an email had come in from Andy Burns that he thought he had a Sanderling in front of Ron's hide. I called him and based on a brief description, I left home.

About 10 minutes later we were looking at a moulting adult, feeding very close by. A Lapwing took exception to it's presence several times and it then went to the shingle island. Various local patchers arrived and saw it before we realised it was missing around 12:35.

It couldn't be found before Marek had to leave, only for it to re-appear 20 minutes after that, I was told it went to sleep, so fingers crossed it will reamin for Marek to get a rare DP lifer.

So the past records look like this, ones on italics are unconfirmed;

May 2nd 1983 - Sandford (FJC)
April 18th 1987 - BSL sailing club beach (RJC et al)
May 14th & 15th 1988 - Lavell's Tern scrape (ADB et al)
May 8th 1993 - Sandford (Observer Unknown)
Oct 20th 1995 - Lavell's (Observer Unknown)
May 30th 1999 - BSL sailing club beach (BTB)
Feb 1st 2012 - Lavell's (RNM & Les Seward) Not wholly confirmed
July 29th 2015 - LFGP (Andy Burns et al)

Having a July Sanderling is unprecedented and the best bird this year.

As always, if anyone knows more about the records (OU), then do let me know, because it is a very rare visitor to DP and it would be great to confirm more of the 8 reported records. There might be other records to come out of the woodwork in 1998, or 2000.

Here are my record shots, sadly it flew to the island before I could shots, Andy will be sending me some great ones, I'll share these on our Facebook page.

Hirundine passage

I was out Monday morning around 06:30, small groups of Sand Martin were going over low South, a group of around 10 Swift went over the landfill, another 20 went over Sandford as I was about to leave.

Wader wise, 2 Green, 2 Common Sandpiper and 2 LRP were out on the SW corner, which has 3-4 inches more water on it..still looking good.

Today I didn't make it out, Marek had the first Teal of he autumn and 3 Green Sandpiper, Richard texted later to say 3 Linnet on LFGP, bringing the month list to 89, the equal 3rd highest July. This is the fourth month in a row, the park has hit equal third position, so all in all a healthy variety of species.

I hope to get out later and look for a Willow Warbler, if anyone has heard of seen a Mistle Thrush, or Lesser Whitethroat, let me know.

Heavy rain passed for now

After yesterday's heavy rain, the scrapes and SW corner of LFGP had 1-2 inches more of water and one might hope for a bit of wader passage, but none was obvious on this morning's visit. Just 2 Green Sandpiper at LFGP and a lone LRP, there were also 2 Little Egret, plus 1 more at Lavell's.

There was however, a good hirundine presence, especially at BSL, with over 200 Swift and 150 House & Sand Martin, plus a few Swallows. A few more at LFGP too.

A family of Sedge Warbler next to Ron's hide was some evidence of breeding, not sure if they bred on the park?