Stanford reservoir. A visit in then afternoon was interesting, passage waders included Greenshank, Black-tailed Godwit, 2 each Green and Common Sandpipers and 5 Little-ringed Plovers. A single Little Egret was at the inlet area. A Red Kite flew over eastward. A couple of Teal and 5 Shelduck were present, these like the other regular duck are moulting currently so spend a lot of time sitting around and preening, as the Lapwing are too.
Two Osprey were present fishing, mostly over the bay area, I think this may be my first record of two together here. they are actually unpaired males that are to young to breed this year and are visiting the various reservoirs in the area, having been seen, usually singularly, on several occasions.
About 20 mins after I had left the reservoir Chris texted to say 3 Ruff had just dropped in, so a little later I returned to have a look at them, as I missed the Spring birds that visited. It looked like 2 males and a single female.
Photo, Chris Hubbard
The water level is still maintained low while the maintenance work continues, so with such a good area of mud and shore we look set for a good autumn wader passage which we don't usually get here. Anticipation of something rare is rising, in 2011 (the last similar low water) produced a Pectoral Sandpiper and Spoonbill. We'll see what comes over the next few weeks.
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