Swannery Birding Highlights Of The Week...
Monday 29th July to Sunday 4th August 2013.......
Shorebirds and their allies stole the show again this week...
The Oystercatcher family were still in the area and there were at least two Lapwings lingering. A Ringed Plover was the first since the spring (but no Little Ringed this week) and a Whimbrel was a brief visitor. There were eight Turnstones on the beach opposite together with up to four Sanderlings and twenty Dunlins. There were one or two Common Sandpipers most days, two Green Sandpipers, a Greenshank, at least two Redshank and a Snipe. The best wader of the week though was a fly-over male Ruff still with some residual summer plumage.
Common Terns were still very much in evidence with around two-hundred in the embayment at times. Careful scrutiny of their ranks revealed a couple of Little Terns but nothing scarcer. Gull numbers continued to build, with a nice little influx of Mediterranean Gulls...
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| Just a few of the Mediterranean Gulls (and one Black-headed Gull) present this week. |
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| A closer look at a couple of the Mediterranean Gulls, a second summer and an adult. |
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| A juvenile Mediterranean Gull with a juvenile Common Tern. © Charlie Wheeler. |
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| Juvenile Mediterranean Gull (the same bird as above). © Charlie Wheeler. |
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| With lots of young (both fledged and unfledged) still around the Common Terns are still very protective... |
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| And are even prepared to take on the odd passing Peregrine Falcon. Both above photos © Charlie Wheeler. |
Other Water birds...
No surprises this week again with all the usual ducks and feral geese still present though a few more Little Grebes are beginning to arrive back...
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| Little Grebe off Bum Point today...
Neither this species or their Great Crested cousins breed at The Swannery but whereas the latter occur all year round, the former are usually absent from early April to late July.
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Land birds...
There is really not much to report on this front either with the only new-in species being Mistle Thrush, with a fly-over family party being the first since early spring, and the only obvious migrants again were a few flocks of up to fifty or so Sand Martins. Hopefully in another week or two though, the list of returning migrants should really get going!
Thanks go, once again, to Charlie Wheeler wheeler-photography for the use of his photos.
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| Our new 'Bug Hotel' constructed by workmate Charlie from the remains of a large fallen Grey Poplar, bamboo and reeds stems. |
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