Pipits on the move

Meadow Pipit on Snipe Meadow

Meadow Pipit on Snipe Meadow

Stonechat

Starlings

Nice surprise in the landfill area

Mute Swan family

Can you spot the Stonechat ?

Fun on the bunds

Pano shot of main pit

After a session of birding with hundreds on Saturday at Slimbridge, thankfully it was back to the peace and quiet of Salford Priors on Sunday. Lee & Paul teamed up with Jon and I for part of the patch walk before leaving us to explore the bunds. Pophills was once again very quiet, we really need some rain to increase the water level as its not attracted any notable waders for weeks.

As we crossed over the road a Golden Plover past over calling heading north east.

The plantation held a remaining male Blackcap, 5 Chiffchaffs, Goldcrests plus the normal selection but despite our best efforts we couldn’t find a Yellow-browed Warbler.

Our two visits to the main pit resulted in finding the two Pintail which have been with us for 2 weeks, 4 Shoveler, 56 Coot (down from a high of 185), 83 Teal, 57 Lapwing, 3 Green Sandpiper, 12 LBBG, 20 Little Grebe and 20 Black-headed Gulls. A Jay, not a common sighting at the pits, flew south over migrant hill towards Evesham.

As we reached the old workings it became clear there was plenty of movement of birds, most probably happening very high above us in clear skies, as there were Meadow Pipits every where. There were also a flock of 30 Linnets and a dozen Goldfinch feeding around the fringe of the area. 13 late Swallows were recharging their batteries on the wires before continuing their journey south.

Migrant trap was busy once again with Starlings, Yellowhammer, Goldfinch and Greenfinches.

Drainage works continues to gather pace on Snipe Meadow however the Meadow Pipits & Skylarks were loving exposed mud. It was hard to conduct an accurate count however both myself and Jon estimated there must have been over 300 Meadow Pipits.

I then picked up a male Stonechat on the south bund which was nice. This was the first of three birds discovered during the morning as we found another on the main bunds and Lee had discovered one to the east of Pophills. Also on the main bunds we found another five Snipe to add to the eight we had discovered already, a very close adult Sparrowhawk, 2 Green Woodpecker and a Kestrel.

As we headed towards the car I counted an amazing 17 Common Buzzards enjoying the excellent thermals and as we counted a Tree Pipit flew west high above us.

Late note - Mark reported 2 Common Gulls & Red Kites 3/10/15