Monday 4th May 2009

An early morning visit was not hugely productive

1 Chiffchaff , 1 TREECREEPER and 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker in Small Wood , 9 Great Crested Grebes + 4 Nests , 1 Barn Swallow thru.

However the 15 minutes spent there this evening was more productive (!)

Upon arrival it was evident that a dump of Hirundines had taken place , with over 150+ birds feeding low over the water , 100+ Barn Swallows . 50+ House Martins were conservative counts , whilst 3 Sand Martins and 2 SWIFTS were much easier to count ! the latter only popped in to feed for about 2 mins before heading off north.

after about 5 mins of fruitless searching for Red Rumped Swallows and Crag martins , all the Swallows and Martins grouped together and headed skywards , i immediately started scanning for HOBBY and was pleased to see on heading East over the main lake , it hung around for about 2 mins and was the first of the year, as soon as it headed off over the bowl , all the Hirundines resumed feeding , and it was whilst scanning through again , I picked up a COMMON SANDPIPER flying across the lake , it landed on Wooden Island and started feeding , again another first for the year.

5 Lesser Black Backed Gulls and 2 Herring Gulls wer an unusual sight this late in the year , the latter were the regular pair of an Adult and a 3rd Summer , whilst the make up of the LBB's were 1 Adult , 2 1st Summers and 2 intermediate 3rd Summer/4th Winter types !

Cheers

FB