May 13th 2010

Today started frosty becoming bright and sunny for my guided walk at the pond before clouding over in the afternoon when Bob and I tried searching for butterflies at Ryton. With little wind the water surface was like a mirror though we saw very little apart from 2 Raven over toft bay 10am when in five minutes we had Dunlin, Shelduck, Common Sandpiper, Oystercatcher and Whimbrel all arrive due to a shift in the wind direction. The Whimbrel landed on toft bank but unfortunately was disturbed by walkers.

Whimbrel By Bob Hazell

My guided walk to rainbow produced 2 of the 5 Yellow Wagtails seen today along with female Grey Wagtail, male Shoveler and stunning views of the male Garganey in rainbow corner.

Garganey by Bob Hazell

Ryton was another failure due to the weather.
Back out in the evening with Dave and spent an hour at the pond on our way to meet Terry and the most noticeable bird around were Yellow Wagtails with 20 present.

Richard