Monday, 17 April 2017

17th April - mostly cloudy, light breeze NNE, 10C

This morning I visited Stanford reservoir, there were many newly arrived hirudines (Swallow, Sand and House Martins), with several hundred busy feeding from low over the water to high up.  The Lon-tailed Duck and 3 Goldeneye were still present. A duck Mallard swam along the edge with 9 recently born duckling.  8 Little Egrets and 6 Grey Heron were feeding around the reservoir.

More Sedge and Reed Warblers were singing, along with a single Cettis' Warbler.  A couple of Red-legged Partridge were feeding in the rough meadow area.

During the afternoon I continued with  my Rookery counting, soon I will have covered them all and know if the population has changed or not compared to last year.
I then decided to visit an area nearby where once Corn Bunting breed, but I have not seen them there for several years as the farm cropping has changed, also I was hoping there may be Wheatear in the area.  I scanned a cultivated area and soon picked out two Wheatears, they showed characters of being the 'Greenland' race that pass through the UK this time of year.




Nearby 3 Stock Dove were feeding on a arable field and a lovely bright male Yellow Wagtail sat on a fence post.

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