The NE blow and rain that started early this morning had me
delaying my outing to the Farm. As it turned out I missed a juvenile Yellow Legged Gull and juvenile cuckoo that
Steve Gale had found and photographed along cuckoo lane of all places.
It appeared that many of the shorebirds had gone AWOL
including the Wood Sandpiper. The Farm has numerous nooks and crannies that
birds find only to re appear days later, raising questions as to where they had
been hiding.
The north lake was where the shorebird tally began for me a
couple of Little Ringed Plover and a Common Sandpiper. A third bird of the
former was seen on 100 Acre later in the day and was overall duller in plumage
than the lake birds (phone pic).
I saw my first Northern Shoveler of the year an eclipse male
and a female that appeared on a small island on the east side of the north
lake.
100 Acre also produced a couple of Green Sandpiper which
were doing race style circuits of Jim’s bed with the lead alternating between
the two birds. Numbers were down on earlier in the week and no Redshank was
seen today despite there being two birds (one banded) in the week.
 |
| (Lesser Black Backed Gull) |
Gulls were up on my last visit which is unusual as in the
days of landfill numbers would drop considerably on a Sunday due to the
landfill being non-operational. The gulls today were split between the north
lake and the wet grassland with a few stragglers resting on the surrounding roofs
to the incinerator.
I recorded fifty three species during my five hour session
and was beginning to melt in all the clobber as I made my way back through the
operational area.
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