Grafham Water - 27 April 2013

A cold northerly wind with prolonged squalls this morning some with hail but also some very bright sunny spells when oddly the air temperature was still low enough for breath to condense. 

A watch from 07.30 - 12.30 covering the shore from Marlow to Savages Creek and west from the Yacht club with a brief visit to the Dam. 

The squalls had grounded some migrants; c 30 Yellow Wagtails and 2 Wheatears were in fields above Sanctuary Bay with 21 Yellow Wagtails elsewhere and 3 Wheatears west of Mander; c 650 Swallows, 200+ House Martins and c. 80 Sand Martins were feeding and resting in the same area during the heaviest of the morning rain after which they left quickly to the east; a total of 4 Whinchats were new in and 8 Lesser Whitethroats were counted. 

1 Arctic Tern was in Sanctuary Bay during one of the squalls and there were c 15 Common Terns around; 4 Common Sandpipers were east of Hill Farm; Whimbrel were moving through with 13 in total (11, 1, 1) flying north through the squalls; 3 Bar-tailed Godwits also flew through north. 

 Hirundines resting during a squall

Lammas Meadow - Little Paxton - 25 April 2013

A murky morning with light rain and a variable SE breeze, a two hour watch from 0545 hrs.

1 Black Tern flew ENE along the Ouse, 16 Common Terns may have been local but also flew north, 2 Common Sandpipers at the Weir, 6 Dunlin flew high NW.
A male Whinchat showed well along the hedge, 9 + Willow Warblers, 11 Chiffchaffs, 4 Whitethroats and 4 Sedge Warblers doubtless included new arrivals. 
9 Yellow Wagtails were on the flash and Meadow Pipits were still moving with 4 over NW. 

Grafham Water - 24 April 2013

Another day of fresh WSW winds, warm and bright.

A couple of hours during the morning covering the south side of the site. Quieter than yesterday with numbers of passerines definitely down.

4 Whimbrel flew north over the dam were the definite highlight, otherwise 9 Common Terns 2 Yellow-legged Gulls, 1 Wheatear on the Dam, c10 Yellow Wagtails and 8 Willow Warblers.

Grafham Water - 23 April 2013

A fresh SW wind with blue skies, a little cloud and rising temperatures made for a quiet morning. A five hour watch from 06.40 covering the Dam, Marlow, Mander, Hill Farm and Lagoons areas.

The day started off very well with two young Otters swimming along the south bank of the Great Ouse viewed from the house.

At Grafham: 6 Goldeneye still, 2 Grey Partridges, 4 Red Kites, 6 Common Buzzards, 1 Hobby through east, 1 Ringed Plover on the Dam, 2 Yellow-legged Gulls, 8 Common Terns, 27 Common Gulls north, 1 Swift over the Dam, 16 Yellow Wagtails below the Dam and 8 north, 2 White Wagtails on the Dam, c. 30 Swallows, 2 Sand Martins, 21 Chiffchaffs, 11 Willow Warblers, 9 Whitethroats, 5 Sedge Warblers and a lone Siskin at north end of the Dam.

Male Siskin 

Grey Partridge 

Filey - 21/22 April 2013

A brief trip back home to Yorkshire for the weekend was poorly timed coinciding with a rather quiet spell though still managed to see a few goodies.

A couple of hours along Hoddy Cows Lane, Buckton on Sunday morning produced a Short-eared Owl, a female Redstart, 2 Twite over north and 4 Corn Buntings. 

There was something of a Red Kite bonanza in the area on Sunday with Filey having at least seven. I connected with three in the air together on Sunday afternoon over Reighton. Eight Arctic Terns were in Filey Bay as were 11 Common Scoters and 2 Red-throated Divers, little else though. 

Monday was if anything even quieter and four hours around Carr Naze and Filey Country Park produced little apart from small numbers of Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers. Good numbers of Sand Martins were along the cliff tops with some basking in the morning sun. A Red Kite flew over south and then finally at the Parish Wood a brief Firecrest sighting brought a pulse of excitement to proceedings.   

Small raft of Razorbills - numbers of auks were visibly low 

Sand Martins clinging to the cliffs 

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