Drizzle & Easterly wind

Nothing had appeared before I left LFGP at 10:30 this morning, Marek had the autumn's first Wigeon on Sandford earlier, but I couldn't find them.

So I went home, only for Alan to call me saying Ringed Plover now in the SW corner, but not needing it, thought maybe later.

Then he called again saying "Black Tern?!" Okay I thought I'd better check it out and dashed down.

It was still flying around on arrival, except it was a juvenile Arctic Tern, not Black, still nice though and had even landed in front of the hide before I arrived. Alan shared these shots with me;

Then it flew into the SW corner and off South.

Meanwhile the Ringed Plover was still there and 3 more Green Sandpiper were joining the other 2 already there. Scanning around I noticed a wader on the North spit, having had a Green there earlier, I checked again and found it to be the autumn's first Snipe, so very nice.

4 Little Egret were highly active and overall my re-visit was well worth the effort and putting the park on 91 for August, means just 2 more to go to equal 3rd place for all Augusts.

Somewhat later I was about to look online for some ideas for a noodle dish and I refreshed Berksbirds, to find 3 Black Tern had been seen at LFGP around 15:35, exactly when I was at Sandford having a meeting with DPCS and the EA.

It was now 17:05 and Marek sent a text saying 1 Black Tern still present, so off I headed to LFGP for the third time. It was showing on arrival and stayed til 18:26 per my good friend Trevor, by which time another Ringed Plover had joined the first.

Marek took some shots of the Black Tern, it even landed giving an excellent comparison of the Arctic juv earlier http://www.berksbirds.co.uk/show_photo.asp?photo_id=9806

So quite a day for terns and reflected elsewhere in the County with more Black Terns and Little and Sandwich seen at Theale too.

Spot Fly & Owls success

Geoff and Les saw a Spotted Flycatcher by the feeder at LFGP, but it moved on and was not seen again. In my search, I arrived at the car park field to hear Little Owl, Richard, Les and Darren were on a juvenile sitting on the green barn guttering at the far left hand end. Great to have proof of breeding. The others also saw at least one Barn Owl chick in the box earlier.

Common Scoter...nice one Marek

Marek called me and again I wasn't up yet, this time a female Common Scoter was gracing BSL.

Dressed in no time, if you call joggies and t-shirt dressed, I went to BSL, speaking to Marek it had swam into the big bay, so I had to go round to view it from near Sandford, where it was looking fairly happy, but slightly nervous.

The last Common Scoter was a male on 18th March 2004, apart from the 3 March records and the May bird, there have been 2 other summer records, 1 female 4th to 7th June 1991 and another female 17th July 1989.

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.