Grimsbury late Spring update

It's been hard work at Grimsbury this spring, with such a warm, dry April, passage has pretty much passed us by! There has though been the odd thing to just about keep us coming back!

The stalwart waders, LRP & Common Sandpiper have been present pretty much throughout in varying numbers.

Others waders have been pretty hard to come by, with a handful of single Dunlin (I've managed just one on 14/05), plus a single Oystercatcher on 27/04 & a pair that were present all day on 06/05.

Probably the best bird of the spring was an extremely short-staying Little tern seen by Gareth Blockley for about 2 minutes. By way of consolation, I came across a nice Arctic Tern the same day (12/05). We thought we had (rather surprisingly) missed out on these this year, however as luck would have it, this one showed for a short while before heading high northwards.

A Greenland-type female Wheatear showed up briefly in windy conditions on 05/05, as did the 100th bird to be recorded at Grimsbury this year in the shape of a handful of Swifts zooming about. A passage Hobby was also a nice surprise on 14/05 hunting along the eastern side of the reservoir before being chased off north by the majority of the local rookery!

With spring now at an end, Grimsbury will now fall into the early summer doldrums, however I'll certainly pay it the odd visit. Hopefully, we might be able to squeeze out the odd year tick before the return autumn passage begins!