17 July 2010

Dry but damp underfoot after overnight rain, cloudy with sunny intervals, temp 14c, quite a strong north/northwest breeze, visit from 06.15 - 08.30.

Good numbers of Swifts again going through heading south at least two separate groups of 35+ and then 60+, the Canada Goose flock still had the hybrid and 4 Greylag Geese, we did the 'WEBS' duck counts today but Nick has all the final counts which I will put on here later, Great Crested Grebes continue to total 4 on the boating lake and there was 10 on the main lake which included a immature bird, a Grey Heron was again fishing along the edge of the boating lake and later we had a single bird on the small pool on the old gas works, a female Pochard was also on the boating lake again and a male on the main lake, at this point we had our first of two real goodies this morning, we heard an unusual call over head and on looking up noticed a Black-tailed Godwit flying over heading south, my first at Westport and one of only a handful of records here, also flying through south were a few small groups of Sand Martins totalling only about 5+, on the main lake Tufted Ducks totalled 45 and the Mute Swans still remain steady with 34 including the single cygnet, then while counting the Mallards Nick noticed a Mandarin, again another rare bird at Westport, another first for me and only Nick's third ever.
A few House Martins joined the Swifts and Swallows going through, probably totalled about 5+, the Shoveler was picked up on the boating lake at the second attempt, in the nature reserve a couple of Blackcaps and the same in Reed Warblers were at the top pool, also a Coal Tit and Bullfinch were heard here, as we came onto the old gas works a couple of House Sparrows were in the silver birches not a place were we get them at all, and as mentioned before not a common bird at Westport, 3 Stock Doves were on the railway gantries and a couple of Collared Doves, finally on the old sewage works a couple of Chiffchaffs.