April 29th 2012

Yesterday was another multi visit day to the pond as the place was battered by a bone chilling wind with gusts of up to 50mph making it extremely difficult to walk in along with long periods of torrential rain which soon had us drenched, eventually eased a little and the front cleared by early evening. At least one adult Kittiwake and 2 Common Tern, plus Dunlin, Little Ringed Plover, 5 Oystercatcher, Common Sandpiper, 20 Yellow Wagtail, 8 White Wagtail and 2 Teal. What made the visit interesting if not already was finding 18 Wheatear due to large numbers arriving in the area since last Friday. On our arrival at 7am there were hundreds of Swallows along with tens of Sand Martin and a few House Martins trying to shelter from the conditions perched on the boulders and wall of farborough bank allowing close views of the various shades of chest colour. At least 2 showed a bright reddish wash so presumed to have some eastern influence in their parentage. Later on they were feeding by just skimming the surface, one or two got caught out by the waves and ditched, being shorter winged than Swifts they survived as did one that got blown through the branches of a tree.