28 April 2012

Well the last few days have just carried on as those previous 24 hours I mentioned in the previous post, back to the 26th and late afternoon an extremely tired Common Tern (Phil Jones) was found on the post off the jetty on the main lake.

The Common Tern was still present this morning although it is barely clinging to life, it was just sat on the edge of the boating lake among the Ducks and Geese as a family chucked bread at it, you could hear them saying how poorly it looked and I really can't see it getting through the night, the photo below by Pete Lunt shows it still in half good condition on the 27th, while I was down Westport I saw Jeff Jones who said it had just been flying around feeding so you never know!

Also around on the late afternoon of the 26th were 10+ Swift and the White Wagtail was still around.

The 27th added a Little Egret and two Ravens heading south, both were seen by Jeff Jones and Pete Lunts with Pete managing to get a photo of the Little Egret as it flew over.

Highlight of the 27th had to be the male Yellowhammer found by Colin on the old sewage works, I haven't got a clue how many records their are of Yellowhammer at Westport (help please Nick) but they are very rare here with nothing listed in the 'Birds of Westport 2002' which has a section in the back listing all the rare/scarce birds from previous years. Early afternoon and Dave Kelsall had a female Peregrine go through south, this is the second record of the year, and the White Wagtail was still present, photo below is by Pete Lunt.

On to today and another rather good day around the park, first thing Phil Jones had, Common Sandpiper, Cormorant, Whitethroat and the now rather morbid looking Common Tern, this was followed by a Wheatear (Jeff Jones) on the old gas works which then flew out of sight over the railway line, he then topped this with a superb male Pied Flycatcher, along the canal side of the main lake, mainly sticking to a tall Sycamore tree opposite Ted Heath Rocks, this again is a very rare record for Westport with it being a Westport tick for most of the regulars, most of those that had seen Pied Flycatcher here before reckoned it was nearly 20 years ago since they saw there last down here!!

It looks like Alan Hancock and myself just got down in time as when Nick & George managed to get down there was no sign despite an extensive search all along the canal side of the main lake and up to the top of the old sewage works. While I was down there briefly I also managed to add two other year ticks to my Westport list with the rather poorly Common Tern, which I'd mentioned earlier and their was also a couple of Swift among the good numbers of Swallow and House Martin, I also noticed a small family of newly hatched Canada Geese Goslings along the edge of the boating lake.