It's been a steady couple of days: nothing too exciting but still enough of interest to stave off the boredom. Our two GARGANEY continue to grace us with their presence, which is great. On Wednesday we had another flock of plover going through with 9 RINGED PLOVER and one bonus DUNLIN in the flock. The OYSTERCATCHERS are still around as well though numbers seem to vary from day to day. On Thursday there were three COMMON SANDPIPERS knocking about - the first that I've personally seen on the patch this year though others have reported them already. A male LESSER WHITETHROAT has been about for the last two days as well, singing first in the hedge by the allotments just before the gate before relocating to the hedges surrounding field 1E in Burgess Field (see map for details).
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| The drake Garganey |
On Wednesday I met another birder whilst I was scoping the shoreline who enquired about one of the Terns that he'd seen which he thought looked like an Arctic. I was rather dismissive to be honest but on my way back I spotted the Tern again and took a closer look as it flew around. Now I (like most birders) do find it tricky to separate the two species, especially in flight, but this one did look to have a shorter bill and neck, it's flight jizz looked distinctly different from the usual COMMON TERNS that are around every day and most important of all, the primary feathers were translucent all the way to the tips so, with reasonable numbers just over the hill at Farmoor presently, I'm happy to put ARCTIC TERN on the patch year list.
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