Saturday, 13 August 2016

13th Aug - light rain first thing, then broken cloud, warm and humid 23C, light SW wind

About 0830h a Nuthatch called in the Long spinney west of the village, then two noisy Marsh Tits, in a roaming Tit flock made themselves visible.  Don't see these as often as I used to in this area.

Next a look at the local lake, here a pair of Little grebe were feeding a well grown chick, Coot numbers are high currently due to a very successful breeding season at the lake.  The Mute Swan pair and nine cygnets are still present, but only one Tufted Duck was there today.
A Sparrowhawk and Buzzard were having a tussle, I think both may have young in the area.  Otherwise it was pretty quite, a single Peacock butterfly was flying about.

I spent a lot of the afternoon at Shawell lagoons trying to learn the Gull juvenile and other young age plumages, fortunately Carl was there to help.  There was ab out a 1000 Gulls present o begin with, these dwindled as some went off to feed, and then more left when a Fox appeared on the shore.  Although it was being rather brave going in to the 'sinking' sand area and sinking  up to its knees.

Gulls present were Lesser Black-backed, Herring, Yellow Legged and Black-headed.  A Common Sandpiper and Pied Wagtail fed on the shore for a while.  A couple of Sand Martins and single Swallow were feeding over the water.  Two Little grebe and a few Tufted Duck were on the south lagoon, including a female with six mid-sized ducklings.



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