Grafham Water 9 June 2012

After a couple of hours yesterday afternoon with not much to show I returned to the dam this morning at 7.15 with the lingering thought of the remote possibility of a windblown seabird; stayed until midday and went home without the anticipated seabird sighting. A fresh wind still but warmer and drier....
A male Peregrine over was unexpected; 1 Hobby through east; 2 Red Kites and 2 Buzzards over Diddington Wood; 1 Ringed Plover on the dam; a pair of Turnstones on the dam until late morning when they flew off south, failed breeders perhaps; 2 Sanderling on the dam early am only, 1 Dunlin a male had the look of race arctica, a windblown late or early returning migrant; 14 Common Terns feeding frantically; 1 Sandwich Tern through east at 09.40; 5 Yellow-legged Gulls around today (1 adult, 2 2nd calendar year and 2 3rd calendar year); c 600 Common Swifts and interestingly four found dead perhaps due to starvation/exhaustion following the spell of cold wet windy weather; c 50 Swallows and c 200 House Martins.

Common Tern

male Turnstone

Dunlin - quite probably race arctica - note the small stint like appearance, shortish bill, dull buff fringing on the upperparts (lacking the rich rufous fringes of  race schinzii or alpina) small diffuse black belly patch and the plain greyish brown coverts. The white collar indicates that this is a male.