A great patch day

The week began with very gloomy and sometimes showery conditions. This, coupled with a strong easterly wind, made it a promising few days for new birds, with seemingly good conditions for a decent drop of Little Gulls.

Monday looked particularly good, with lots of gloom, mist and showers. It felt like every bloody patch of water had Little Gulls except Grimsbury! I did though find our first Common Tern of the year which ended up lingering all day.

Tuesday again seemed promising and I arrived at the res nice and early for a good patch stint before work. Initially there was nothing then we were up and running! First one, then two adult Little Gulls dropped out of the clouds - one with a black hood, one not. They began non-stop dip-feeding over the water, giving at times, brilliant views, possibly the best I've had.

While watching the gulls a 'Commic' tern appeared and joined them in feeding over the water. I quickly realised it was in fact an Arctic Tern - probably my earliest ever in fact and part of a small sprinkling of them across inland sites. Another very decent patch bird - it was turning into a very good day!





Just when I thought it couldn't get any better...it did! a succession of Lesser Black Backed Gull alarm calls, alerted my attention to a raptor flying pretty low over the adjacent cattle field - a cream-crown Marsh Harrier!! WOW!





The harrier battled into the breeze, harassed all the way by the local pair of LBBGs, before it disappeared over the nearby Amazon warehouse.

A seriously brilliant bird for good old suburban Grimbo and a treasured patch tick! Arguably bird of the morning, however it was hard to beat those cracking Little Gulls!

This week has also seen the first few Yellow Wagtails appearing, giving a real splash of colour to proceedings! Two showed particularly well on Friday evening and with a fair bit of patience, allowed me to get some decent pics.





A few other pics from the patch during the last week or two: