Lammas Meadow - 20 April 2013

Clear overnight with a frost but becoming warm and sunny with a light S/SW breeze. 
A two hour watch on the meadow from 06.45 then an intermittent skywatch during the afternoon.

Not surprisingly most of yesterdays migrants had gone but a Nightingale singing from the copse was new in otherwise just 1 Willow Warbler, 2 Sedge Warblers and 4 Chiffchaffs. Two large pale looking Redpolls which flew low ENE with a lower toned slower flight call were likely to have been Mealy's.

Skywatching produced a male Peregrine north, 3 Red Kites, 4 Common Buzzards and a trickle of hirundines moving through northwards.

Willow Warbler 

Toseland SF - 19 April 2013

Spurred on by the numbers of migrants new in this morning I decided to have a look around another favorite local haunt from 3-5.30 pm. The wind had veered NE with increasingly frequent light rain showers. 

Again there were good numbers of migrants though of a slightly different species mix, an elusive male Redstart and a probable female nearby headed the bill and were part of a general second wave arrival of this species across southern and central England. 

Even better was a flock of 18 (12 male) Wheatears in the adjacent kale (actually an oil seed rape) field. In a fairly tight group they spent most of the twenty minutes or so that I watched them resting in the shelter of the Kale leaves and did not feed, clearly very tired migrants. I even flushed one from underfoot on a long grassy track -  very coastal....At least 11 of the birds which I managed to view well looked to be of the race leucorhoa and were doubtless brought in by yesterdays low pressure system.  I wonder how many groups like this were in crop fields across the country.

Otherwise: 4 Chiffchaffs, 6 Whitethroats, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 4 Willow Warblers, 11 Reed Buntings, 4 Yellowhammers and a steady trickle of Swallows through north, a laggard Redwing also flew north.

Female Wheatear race leucorhoa 

Male Whitethroat 

Lammas Meadow, Little Paxton - 19 April 2013

An overcast morning with a light SW wind.

Spent a couple of hours from 06.30 on the Meadow. An arrival of warblers was very evident, the best being a Grasshopper Warbler which gave a short reel typical of spring migrants and showed briefly in a low tangle. Otherwise 11 Willow Warblers; 16 Chiffchaffs; 4 Whitethroats which were flushed from a marshy area of tussocks then retreated to their usual Hawthorn hedge haunt, 11 Swallows through north.  8 Common terns flew north. 

On the now drying flash 8 Yellow and 1 male Blue-headed Wagtails were quickly put up by canine enthusiast. 4 Wheatears were on the Golf Course and though distant had the  dusky large look of leucorhoa.

Willow Warbler - this one had very cold plumage tones and dark legs,

 the song and call were typical - possibly of the colour type eversmanni and

of the race acredula 

Great Ouse and Grafham - 18 April 2013

A strong SSW blow today with bright blue skies in the morning, increasing cloud from lunchtime and some heavy squalls.

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. 

Arctic Tern 

Common Tern resting on the boom

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 

  

Male 'Channel Wagtail' on the Dam

Lammas Meadow Little Paxton - 16 April 2013

Fresh SSW winds and clear skies had encouraged a clear out of migrants, an early evening walk resulted in just 1 Chiffchaff with 16 Swallows and c.30 House Martins lingering, the migrant Reed Buntings had departed leaving just the three breeding pairs. Later in the evening 13 Common Terns and 4 Arctic Terns flew south-east.

Lammas Meadow, Little Paxton - 15 April 2013

With the weather looking ideal for migrants decided on a very early pre-work visit for a couple of hours, a whole morning would have been better...

The highlight was a first-summer male Ring Ouzel which exploded out of the hedge infront of me and flew off towards the Golf Course on the west bank of the Great Ouse.

Otherwise: 3 Little Egrets on the flash, 2 Snipe still, 2 Ruff on the flash then off ENE, 2 Yellow Wagtails, 4 Redwings over ENE, 11 Meadow Pipits over NW, 3 Willow Warblers, 4 Chiffchaffs (all standard issue collybita), 4 Blackcaps new in and 2 Sedge Warblers.

Lammas Meadow, Little Paxton - 14 April 2013

The warm southerly airstream brought in a Water Pipit which was on the flash early morning, following a strong excited burst of song it flew off high east. 
The clear skies had encouraged the Redwings to depart and Blackbird numbers are now definitely down to local breeding birds. A single Common Sandpiper flew along the Ouse, 3 Yellow Wagtails flew north, 2 Goldcrests were new in as was a Sedge Warbler along the dyke. 6 Chiffchaffs and a Willow Warbler were singing from the copse, 6 Swallows flew through north and 8 Redpolls flew north-east. 5 Sparrowhawks which flew north were doubtless migrants.

Water Pipit singing

Immature Female Sparrowhawk heading north