A Cuckoo called again this morning as I headed over to the beach. A seawatch first thing with Ian in encouraging conditions was really disappointing with two Common Terns and a passage of easterly heading Swifts being the highlights. Two very distant divers remained unidentified in the heat haze. I think the first was Great Northern and the second Red-throated although we couldn’t be certain.
Swift
There were six Reed Warbler singing around the reserve and a similar number of Whitethroats but no Willow Warblers which appear to just pass though at NO. Thursday’s two Lapwing chicks were still on Three Fields South and I located another two chicks on Three Fields North, the parent birds looking permanently stressed. Greater Stitchwort was flowering in the hedgerows.
Two Greenshank were roosting on DL’O scrape with a dozen Bar-tailed Godwit. Back at the car I checked the ditch for Hairy Dragonfly which occurs here and is the first hawker of the year, no sign today. A female Wheatear, probably yesterday’s bird kept us company around the Wardens Hut while Dimitri and I watched G Island for paddle boarders and canoeists.
Whimbrel and Bar-tailed Godwits were again all over the reserve but there were fewer than yesterday moving on the sea.
A Small Copper was basking on a warm log in the gorse bushes at the point while a fully laden White-tailed Bumblebee worker was nectaring from the gorse flowers. I checked the area for Green Hairstreak which are on the wing by now but it seemed a little exposed in the strong easterly wind.
Another eight Common Terns passed off shore just as I was finishing the Peregrine watch. Dimitri texted me news of four more Lapwing chicks on Droveway South which I pulled over to watch on the way home. That made eight chicks in all today.
Patch Birding 