November 4th 2008

Arrived at Draycote Water just in time to be shown a first winter Med Gull feeding in a mixed gull flock below farborough spit and the Little Owl nearby. Red-necked Grebe still present though it spent most of the morning off the sailing club before returning to farborough bank.


Red-necked Grebe by Bob hazell
I gave the reservoir a good search taking advantage of no wind but could not relocate yesterdays scoter's or diver. Met up with Bob, Francoise and Lee in cafe and while enjoying a coffee spotted a small falcon fly in from the right and it landed on the wall of farborough bank - stunning female Merlin. Other birds seen up to mid afternoon were Shag first winter, Yellow-legged Gull 2 adults, Sparrowhawk, Great-spotted Woodpecker, Pochard 24, Goldeneye 8 female and 4 male, Raven and counted 181 Great-crested Grebes plus three escaped Cape Shelduck.

Cape Shelduck by Bob Hazell
The low cloud started breaking up mid-day and this resulted in 50+ Skylarks going over and I stayed for roost putting Lee and Bob on to a first year Glaucous Gull I had found and there were another 4 adult Yellow-legged gulls in the roost. Surprisingly there were very few large gulls arriving in comparison to yesterdays roost but on the plus side there was a massive jump in Common Gulls numbers with an estimated ten thousand present.
Two more Sprawlers were on the cafe wall and on the way out Common Pipistrelles were hunting over windsurfing car park and near hide while two Noctule bats were feeding along farborough bank.

Richard