Definitely a cooler feel to the weather today. The floods are looking very empty now with just a handful of straggler ducks and gulls left on it though the three EGYPTIAN GEESE are still with us and one of yesterday's two COMMON SANDPIPERS decided to linger another day. The Reed Warbler is still singing away in the Trap Ground reed bed and Liam Langley and James Evry came up trumps this afternoon with a SEDGE WARBLER singing in a ditch near Burgess Field. It's great to get this warbler on the list finally - it should be really straight-forward but somehow we've been struggling. They also had a HOBBY in Burgess Field, another year tick. Finally, the CETTI'S WARBLER was reported again today so it's still hanging around.
The one remaining Common Sandpiper |
So two more year ticks under the belt. We just need Lesser Whitethroat on the Warbler front now whereas for the waders we might reasonably expect Greenshank, Ruff, Grey Plover and possibly Bar-tailed Godwit and Wood Sandpiper still.
With regard to the Whimbrel count, Peter Law commented that when he came to look on Thursday there were just two birds and that a flock of 18 was seen flying high over Standlake later on that same day. So it's possible that two of the 18 split off and came back whilst the main flock went on over to Standlake (though that's not exactly due north of here). Anyway, it was great to see such a large flock on the Meadow.