I had Sunday (26/04) morning to myself and so decided to visit a few Northants sites in the hope of more migrants.
I decided to start at Daventry Reservoir/Country Park as it's usually a good site for terns/gulls in spring. Heading there was all the more a must as just as I was leaving, news came of a singing Wood Warbler in the car park. Brilliant!
I arrived to be greeted by a guy saying it was not around, however within 30 seconds I was beckoning him over as the unmistakable tumbling song of a Wood Warbler came from trees close to where I'd parked. The bird created a mini twitch of local birders and showed fairly well, if a bit high in the canopy between the car park and the reservoir. Neck-breaking stuff!
They really are always a cracking bird to see and hear and I spent ages watching and enjoying it, my second county Wood Warbler. The reservoir held little else, other than a decent gathering of Common Terns. On my return to the car park I had another little vigil with the Warbler and in fact, he showed far better in marginly better light.
I decided to give Summer Leys a go next as with limited time, it would almost certainly provide some good birds.
Pioneer Hide produced some nice stuff, with a distant, dabbling drake Garganey in wader bay along with a White Wagtail. A really smashing looking spring Green Sandpiper was feeding in vegetation on the scrape, as well as 3 vocal LRP and a Greenshank was on Round Island.
Wandering round to the lane, a relatively illusive Whimbrel appeared near to the screen hide, while a total of 14 Dunlin were spread between Gull Island and Mary's Lake. Nearby, my first 2015 Garden Warbler was in song and the near-resident 2nd-summer Med Gull went over a couple of times calling.
Before I finished my birding for the day, I popped into Clifford Hill GP for a short while, a site I hadn't visited for quite a few months. Here 1-2 Arctic Terns were cruising about, together with several Common Tern. Also here were a single Common Sand and a summer plumaged Dunlin.
Great morning's birding and 6 new year ticks to boot!
Thursday, 30 April 2015
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Last of the summer migrants
As we moved through September and into October, summer visitors slowly thinned out and autumn began to take grip. The sound of Redwings seep...
-
For a while, there were plans for a 2024 overseas birding trip in late May, with Estonia mooted as a possibility. However, with the brillian...
-
Another interesting year's local birding with a grand total of 146, actually equalling the 2022 total and again, agonisingly short of 15...
-
Back from a very sunny, family holiday in Tenerife, 17/03 - 22/03. If time permitted, I was keen to get round to see as many of the endemc b...
No comments:
Post a Comment