An intermittent Great Ouse watch from home in the morning yielded 4 Sandwich Terns north, 14 Common Terns S/SE and 2 Arctic Terns SE. A male Wheatear dropped into a small area of short cropped lawn next to the house.
Given the weather, Grafham seemed the obvious choice for an early evening outing and I spent 4-7 pm working the south side dodging several promising looking squalls.
The winds had brought in modest numbers of sterna terns with 7 Arctics and 18 Commons mostly at the south-west end of the site, most (c.12) of the latter still lacked the dark primary wedges so typical of the species in late spring and summer with the wings looking quite plain.
Goldeneye numbers were down to 9 all but one females; 3 Common Sandpipers on the Dam; 4 male Wheatears were in fields west of Mander, 14 male Yellow Wagtails were on the Dam with 8 on the Yacht Club grass, a male Blue-headed Wagtail was with the latter group until they all flew off toward the Dam; a male and most probably female 'Channel' Wagtail were on the dam; 8 White Wagtails were on the Dam and a further 4 at the Yacht Club. Hirundines were present in modest numbers though c. 70 Swallows dropped in during one of the squalls.
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| Arctic Tern |
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| Common Tern resting on the boom |
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| Female Channel Wagtail - superficially looks like Blue-headed but the white super, covert and tertial fringes and lack of sub ocular strip are atypical so very likely to be a female Channel |
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| Male 'Channel Wagtail' on the Dam |
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