Thursday 14 May 2009

14th May 2009


A pleasant change this morning to find hardly a breath of wind after the strong easterlies that had made birding quite uncomfortable recently.


The murky damp conditions were brightened for the observers by some good birds to be seen from soon after dawn.


The first 2 Spotted Flycatchers (above and right) of the year prefered to fly-catch from the fences and other open areas rather than the normal trees and bushes, which explains why they failed to be ringed today.

Likewise a Whinchat also failed to cooperate and stayed on high perches and even sat on top of a mist net pole at one stage (right).
More obliging were 3 of the 5 Sedge Warblers present, 1 of the 2 Whitethroats, and half of the small trickle of Willow Warblers during the morning.

Hirundines were logged at over 400 Swallows, 5 House Martins, also 4 Swifts.

Some significant wader counts (for this time of year) were about 1,000 Knot and 15 Sanderling all moving north east. The by now almost expected Little Egret (left) didn't appear until noon.

Ringed :- 5 Willow Warblers, 3 Sedge Warblers, 1 Whitethroat.
(DB,CJ et al) [385] photos CJ et al

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