September 4th 2010

Started the day with a Little Owl perched on the roof top of a house in Northampton Lane, Dunchurch (5:30am) with another at 6am above the boardwalk in toft shallows, Draycote Water being mobbed by Blackbirds, Wren and Dunnocks.


Sunrise from farbough spit - how can you rot in bed and miss this !!!!!

It had been a clear night though not as cold as of late with half the reservoir covered in mist but the sun soon burnt it off. Unfortunately no obvious signs of any new arrivals and the waders on hensborough bank are dwindling in numbers with only 6 Ringed Plover, 4 Dunlin and a juvenile Curlew Sandpiper left, probably due to a mixture of migrants going straight over and the ledge on hensborough bank drying rapidly as the water levels drop even further.
Continued searching but the only area with any activity was the hedge row between rainbow corner and the lump which had 33 Long-tailed Tits in 3 flocks along with 11 Willow Warbler, 4 Chiffchaff, Whitethroat, 2 Lesser Whitethroat and 2 Jays.
Steve Seal phoned to say he was on his way so I went back to the Curlew Sandpiper and spent the morning with him and the other photographers present (too many to name) chewing the cud.

Curlew Sandpiper by Steve Seal - good to see he has not lost his touch

I’m not in their league so kept an eye out for fly over’s while they clicked merrily away and managed 2 Hobby hunting in the distance plus a near adult Yellow-legged Gull. Only other birds seen were 3 Pintail early morning only, 9 Buzzard, Common Tern, 7 Gadwall and 10 Yellow Wagtail before a few of us went for a coffee and butty.

I ended up as Billy no mates when everyone left so continued birding till early afternoon finding another Hobby over toft shallows and new arrival in the shape of a juvenile Black Tern in toft bay when the cloud came in.
Non-birding sightings were 2 day flying Vapourer Moth, Migrant Hawker and a Fox and some very shapely joggers that none of us noticed going past - honest.

Richard