Thursday 3rd May

Another good day of wader passage on the Meadow.  The flood levels were about the same as yesterday and at present the floods have created a lovely archipelago of grassy islands on which the waders like to sit with the largest being the one nearest the Perch. Today's birds were: the WHIMBREL and the GREY PLOVER still, 2 BAR-TAILED GODWITS, 5 GREENSHANK, 1 REDSHANK, 14 DUNLIN, 1 COMMON SANDPIPER and 2 OYSTERCATCHER. On the duck front there were now 26 TUFTED DUCK and 4 POCHARDS. Whilst I was scanning the floods a sedge warbler was singing away in a hawthorn bush right next to me. Ben Sandford-Smith also reported a kingfisher on the Castle Mill Stream. The Barwits and the Greenshank are Patch Year Ticks and the Pochard would be except that Sydney Penner saw one a couple of days ago which I'd not yet mentioned. It's an exciting time of year when the passage is in full swing.

 
One of the two bar-tailed godwits today.