Passage waders !
Cuckoo
Attention!
Air Festival over the patch
Whitethroat keeping an eye on me
Oystercatcher family
Cygnets take to water for first time
After a few days away it was back to birding on the patch. The weekend started well when I picked up a Hobby flying towards Dunnington and five Swifts were soaring above the Broom Tavern as we left.
On both mornings the patch roads were full of hot air balloon festival watchers. Thankfully all the balloons stayed clear of the water areas. The balloons were a lovely back drop to the fantastic weekend weather.
The bird of the weekend was definitely the Cuckoo with five different birds observed in the areas between Cookhill and Biford-upon-Avon. A pair were copulating on the edge of the main pit and both birds were observed through until Monday.
We had a number of exciting new arrivals joining the three Mallard broods already out in the open. First brood to reveal themselves were the Oystercatchers that emerged on the main spit whilst in the reed bed corner there was ten Shelduck duckings.
Sundays WeBS count included 2 Ringed Plover, 3 Little Ringed Plover, 2 Shoveler, 111 Mallard, 99 Tufted Duck, 12 Gadwall, 10 Greylag, 58 Coot, 8 Canada Geese, 3 Mute Swan, 8 Moorhen, 4 Lesser Black-backed Gull and a Lapwing. Raptors included a Sparrowhawk, 2 Buzzard and a Red Kite.
On Monday I headed down again and I had a hunch of a tern could be possible given local movement. This proved correct as 2 Common Terns were present before heading towards Abbots Salford. There was also a count of 57 Lesser Black-backed Gulls.
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