08 September 2011

It's been a rather hectic but productive morning and I'm due in work in 40 mins so I will have too make this rather brief.

Started off at Westport as usual, a Jay was calling from the wood by the bottom entrance, on the main lake 600+ Black-headed Gulls came in for a brief wash and feed from there overnight roost before carrying on there journey, also on the lake 53 Tufted Ducks, 4 Mute Swans plus another 2 on the boating lake, 5 Great Crested Grebes which included the chick, and the single Pochard, 6 Chiffchaff were around the park, overhead 4 Swift were present with over 100+ House Martins, 30+ Swallows and 6 Sand Martins, a Grey Wagtail was along the old beach area and another over the sewage works, a Grey Heron flew over the main lake and probably the same bird was later seen over the sewage works, on the gas works the Mistle Thrushes have reduced further to just 12, a Pied Wagtail flew over and the first Meadow Pipit of the autumn with another over the visitor centre, 3 Bullfinches were by the boardwalk bridge and a juvenile Bullfinch by the top pool, a Willow Tit was also around here and a female Great Spotted Woodpecker.

I hadn't been home long when Steve Seal rang asking if I'd like to go down to Belvide to see the Sabine's Gull, I didn't need asking again, and an hour later we were at Belvide, we didn't have to wait too long when the Sabine's Gull appeared along the Dam Wall, it was just 20ft away at times and totally oblivious to the small crowd looking down on it. Below is a record shot i took with my mobile phone against my bins.

Also present was a rather nice juvenile Arctic Tern.

Later in the morning at Westport Pete Lunt had, Swift, 3 Sand Martins, a pair of Blackcaps, Willow Warbler, Great Spotted Woodpecker and a Buzzard. Right off too work!!

06 September 2011

A very dark, cloudy and wet start, against yesterday at 06.00 I couldn't see a thing, it was pitch black, going to have to start going down later I'm afraid, it rained for most of the visit with light to heavy showers, the wind was a strong SW and had brought down a few light branches from the trees, temp was warmer than yesterday at 15c, visit from 05.55 til 08.20.

On the main lake, 4 Mute Swans, 63 Tufted Duck, the single female Pochard, 6 Great Crested Grebe plus the young chick which is going to find it hard to survive with the weather conditions which are due to carry on for the next few days, there were 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls among the 200+ Black-headed Gulls, there were huge numbers of Swallows and House Martins going through this morning, at anyone time there were 300+ over the main lake which seemed to come down for a feed before spiralling up in large flocks coming back down and then heading off south, while on the sewage works and gas works I could see groups of 50+ coming over towards the main lake, I wouldn't be surprised if well over a 1,000+ went through this morning, also among the flock 10+ Sand Martins which included a very light one that almost looked like it had white wings and 3 Swifts.
Along the reserve side of the main lake a single Coal Tit, 6 Chiffchaffs were around the park, a single Great Spotted Woodpecker, Blackcap and a Grey Wagtail along the waters edge, a Sparrowhawk went across the sewage works, on the gas works a count of 25 Mistle Thrushes was nowhere near as good as the count of 41 Nick had on here on Sunday, on the top pool a single Teal and Kingfisher were present.

05 September 2011

A very cloudy start with brighter weather coming over, quite cool at 12c, wind steady SSW, visit from 06.00 til 08.15.

Large count of 200+ Black-headed Gulls on the playing field this morning, on the boating lake a Grey Heron was making its way around the waters edge, 4 Teal were on here as well, on the main  lake, 76 Tufted Duck, 6 Great Crested Grebe with a Chick on the back of one which appeared a few days ago, if successful it will be the first success this year after a very poor year for the Grebes, 4 Mute Swans still present and the female Pochard, 5 Swifts were overhead among a flock of well over 100+ House Martins and a decent number of Swallows, also a couple of Sand Martins were among them, a single Pied Wagtail was on the grass bank, 6 Chiffchaffs around the park and a single Blackcap was singing along the reserve side of the main lake, a Bullfinch flew over with another 2 near the top pool, 2 Collared Doves were on the sewage works as was a single Kestrel and Willow Tit.