With the wind relenting in the night, almost full moon and clear sky’s I wasn’t holding me breath when we arrived at the pond just after 8:30am though the wind speed increased through out our 5 hour visit with an average 15 to 20mph occasionally gusting over 30mph.
Our walk towards farborough spit produced overnight arrivals of 2 juvenile Curlew Sandpiper and an increase in Dunlin and Ringed Plover numbers with 18 and 14 recorded with possible more dotted around the reservoir. Also seen were 3 Greenshank, Common Sandpiper and Little Stint.
We were just reaching toft shallows when news reached us that Tim and Paul had found a Manx Shearwater but as we were unable to locate it from our position we doubled back and joined them at the wind surfing area where we eventually saw it. The bird spent most of its time keeping low in the water between B & Y buoy and the valve tower so was always distant preferring to swim and rarely showing well.
juvenile Shag by Bob Hazel
Other species seen today were juvenile Shag which was again on farborough bank before moving to rainbow corner, White Wagtail on farborough bank which could have been Sundays bird, adult and juvenile Arctic Tern, 2 Common Tern including one posing on the picnic area shore line, Black Tern, 10 Yellow Wagtail, 2 Wheatear, 100+ Sand Martin, 5 Swift, Buzzard and Little Ringed Plover in the wind surfing area.
juvenile Common Tern by Bob Hazel
We had been lucky in missing the predicted rain so called it a day when it eventually arrived just as Tim rang to say he had a Black-necked Grebe at Napton Reservoir so by the time we arrived it was nice and sunny and the juvenile was showing against the reed bed but would not pose for photos. A Hobby hunted over our heads and we had 11 Raven together plus another 2 over Napton on the Hill, Sparrowhawk and Buzzard also seen.
Richard
2 comments:
The juvenile tern in the above picture is an Arctic.
Cheers many thanks putting us right
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