02 May 2011

You never know what's round the corner, especially at Westport, you can walk around for 3 or 4 hours in a morning and see nothing and then just before you leave something turns up from out the blue, this has happened a couple of times recently, the Wheatear last week being a classic example and today it happened again, the wind was very strong and from the East but with little to no cloud and no rain I really didn't expect to much, but with all the Bar-Wits going through and Arctic Terns elsewhere you never really no, temp was 10c, visit from 05.50 til 08.45.

As I entered by the bottom gate a quick scan of the playing fields produced 3 Mistle Thrushes, onto the boating lake were 5 Mute Swans were present, 1 adult and 4 1st years, along the far back the Canada Geese were feeding with 9 Goslings as were the Domestic Geese with 8 young, 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls were flying around the main lake, a single Pied Wagtail was along the grass verge and another was seen later on the old gas works, 3 Starlings were feeding along the grass verge with a further 10 on the playing field later, 3 Greylag Geese were on the boating ramp with 4 male Tufted Ducks nearby and a single female on the boating lake, 5 Great Crested Grebes on the main lake and 3 Little Ringed Plovers with 2 around the old beach area and 1 on the playing field later, a single Great Spotted Woodpecker flew over the canal side were I had a male Reed Bunting singing from a tree by Ted Heath Rocks, the first 3 Mallard Ducklings I've seen this year were on the boating lake, in the small wood at the back of the boating lake a couple of Blackcaps were singing with just a couple more around the park, the first of 6 Chiffchaffs was singing along the 'Avenue', 2 Collared Doves flew over near the top pool were a single Sedge Warbler and Reed Warbler were singing, a couple of Willow Warblers were singing 1 along the edge of the old gas works and old sewage works and the other on the old sewage works, a Bullfinch was heard on the gas works and another on the sewage works, 2 Stock Doves on the old gas works, a Kestrel also flew across here, at least 8 Whitethroats on the sewage works but no sign of yesterdays Grasshopper Warbler, a couple of Black-headed Gulls flew over here.

As we got back to the main lake I just happened to look onto the main lake at what was a Great Crested Grebe, a yellow bird flew across my view and landed near the bottom entrance to the nature reserve, I managed to get Nick onto it and it then flew a bit further up the main lake, there was no mistaking it was a Yellow Wagtail, another Westport life and year tick, it was flushed again by people passing and then landed on the grass verge, we started walking along the canal side of the lake to get better views from the visitor centre, but when we got down there we couldn't relocate it, we met up with Pete Lunt who was photographing Little Ringed Plovers but he hadn't seen it, we walked around the area trying to relocate it but to no avail, a bit of luck had gone our way as it had moved on, also seen at this time a Sparrowhawk flew over, a House Martin went through as did around 10 Swifts and a few Sand Martins, a Buzzard was drifting over the distant hills.