Wednesday 02 May: Birds galore - KITTIWAKES, TURNSTONE, WHINCHATS, PURPLE HERON

Without doubt, bird of the day was a first-summer PURPLE HERON that Mark Thomas picked up flying SE over Peacocks Lake, Broom, at 1857 hours; Jim Gurney managed to just get onto it too after a hasty call from MT

Meanwhile, early on, Stewartby Lake had been the place to be, with 2 adult KITTIWAKES present from 0650-0800 hours (Keith Owen, Chris Dreary), the drake COMMON SCOTER, the continuing SLAV, a nice summer-plumaged SANDERLING on the slipway (KO et al) (flew off just before midday) and a first-summer LITTLE GULL briefly (KO) (which relocated to Brogborough - Dave Odell).

Returning to Broom GP, Mark Thomas found a summer-plumaged TURNSTONE on Peacock's Lake, with DUNLIN numbers at Gypsy Lane East increasing from 4 to 13 by the end of the day (Matt Burgess, SCB, et al). A male WHITE WAGTAIL also appeared there, with 6 BLACK-TAILED GODWITS north through Peacock's at 2034 hours (SCB).

Martin Palmer discovered 3 SANDWICH TERNS at Stewartby lake at 1145 hours, these remaining for about 20 minutes before flying off, with 3 ARCTIC TERNS at Derek White's later (SCB). Another TURNSTONE appeared at Millbrook Pillinge early afternoon (Dave Ball et al), with 5 Northern Wheatears and a female WHINCHAT at Poppy Hill Farm Paddocks at Langford (TL 191 397) (Roger Hicks; Andy & Melissa Banthorpe)