A plethora of GARGANEYS of late

A good week for GARGANEYS in the county............and BLACK TERNS

First off, a drake of unknown origin was again at Blunham Lake and then two drakes spent Sunday on Peacocks Lake, Broom. The latter site also attracted up to 7 post-breeding BLACK TERNS - see pix below

Finally get a county STONECHAT

Darin Stanley and I had this beautiful singing male COMMON STONECHAT today at a site in the north of the county - the first I have seen this year in Bedfordshire.

The gorse stricken site was also very good for Song Thrush (6 singing males), Common Whitethroat and Dunnock

With a short spell of sunshine late afternoon, I moved on to Bison Hill, Whipsnade, where in addition to singing Common Whitethroat and Garden Warbler, butterflies on the wing included 3 DUKE OF BURGUNDY FRITILLARIES, a SMALL HEATH, a DINGY SKIPPER and a SMALL BLUE

WOOD SANDPIPER at Broom for second day (plus CURLEW SAND lingering)

WEDNESDAY 22 MAY

 

A moderate NE wind blowing, with fairly cool temperatures and a lot of cloud cover

 

Failing to locate any local Spotted Flycatchers again and dipping on CDRH's Roseate Tern pair at QMR which disappeared after 22 minutes, I made my way over to AMWELL NATURE RESERVE (HERTS) where Bill Last had located a transitional plumaged TURNSTONE on the increasing mud in front of the Watchpoint there.

 

Unlike Jay Ward's Wood Sandpiper (who incidentally arrived at Amwell the same time as me), this passage wader was still there and showing extremely well. I managed to get at least 30 decent images of it (see below), the bird staying until at least early afternoon when I departed (in fact it was still there at 1600 hours per Simon Knott). Four displaying LITTLE RINGED PLOVERS were also on the mud, as well as a pair of Common Redshank and a COMMON SANDPIPER, whilst two Eurasian Wigeon were still lingering as well as a pair of Shoveler. Also present were 15 Common Terns, COMMON CUCKOO, 2 male Blackcaps and the GARDEN WARBLER.

 

 

 

I then moved north into BEDFORDSHIRE and GYPSY LANE EAST, BROOM, where belatedly I connected with my first county WOOD SANDPIPER of the year (see pix below). It was furtively feeding along the southern edge of the main scrape. The transitional plumaged CURLEW SANDPIPER was also still present (fourth day), creeping through emergent vegetation on the east shore. Eight Little Ringed Plovers were noted, whilst 400+ Common Swifts were in the general area. Still no Hobby.

 

 

Record shots of the Wood Sandpiper (top two) and Curlew Sandpiper

 

Events then unfolded in Woolwich curtailing my days birding abruptly....

Local Mega: CURLEW SANDPIPER at Broom

Taken at 300 yards range - CURLEW SANDPIPER in transitional plumage at Gypsy Lane East

 

 

SUNDAY 19 MAY

 

A beautiful evening with the day's heavy cloud clearing away to leave a clear blue sky. Quite warm too at 17 degrees C.........

 

Arriving home from work at 1700 hours, I was pleased to see that my COMMON SWIFTS had arrived during the day - 8 birds noisily wheeling around CHAFFINCH HOUSE - the first of the year

 

I then had to make the daily commute to GYPSY LANE EAST, a journey of some 76 miles round-trip, this time to see a CURLEW SANDPIPER found by Andy Impey at 1515 hours........

 

And it was not good news when I arrived there at 1855. Pip, Darren Thomas and others had been searching for over half an hour and had seen nothing - seemingly the bird had moved on. Knowing that Andy Plumb and Stuart Warren had been watching the bird as recently as 1755, I phoned both of them to get the lowdown. Apparently the bird had been difficult and was skulking for much of the time, some observers leaving the site after only seeing the head and bill ! This was encouraging, even though everyone else had given up. I concentrated my efforts on the back pool and eventually located the bird, sheepishly feeding amongst vegetation on the near edge. It was very difficult to see and only really showed when it was attacked and chased by Lapwings, forcing it out into the open. It was very distant - perhaps 300 yards - but I did take these record images as it fed alongside a Common Redshank.

 

Placing the bird back on RBA, both Darren and Pip returned, whilst Martin Stevens, Matt Burgess and Barry Squires also turned up. It remained on view until at least 2015 hours when I departed

 

Not much else on offer other than Ringed and Little Ringed Plovers, 4 Shoveler, 8 Common Shelduck and 6 Gadwall; Greylag Geese broods were everywhere totalling over 60 birds - yuck!

AVOCET gripped back

This pair of PIED AVOCETS spent the day at Gypsy Lane East today, both birds remaining until dusk (see images above). Two summer-plumaged TURNSTONES also remain as well as 10 Common Shelducks.