Monday 15th to Sunday 21st September 2014...

Swannery Birding Highlights Of The Week... 

Wildfowl... The regular female Scaup and the male Goldeneye were still in the now 200 strong Pochard/Tufted Duck flock, whilst dabbler numbers were pretty much the same, with a peak of around 200 Teal, 30 Shoveler, 30 Wigeon, 30 Pintail and 10 Gadwall.

The long-staying female Scaup

Waders... Last week's Little Stint lingered on meadow pool to Tuesday in company with three Snipe (with a few of the latter also scattered around the reedbeds) but disappointingly the only other waders, save for a few Lapwing, were all fly-overs and consisted of singles of Ruff, Black-tailed Godwit and Greenshank. 

The juv. Little Stint

The three Snipe

Gulls & Terns... Another week passed without any terns and no real noteworthy gulls but Mediterranean Gulls increased to around fifty early in the week. 

Other water-birds... There's really nothing to add to the last few week's sightings but there were plenty of Cormorants on the move both along the coast and departing and arriving from inland, while a very confiding individual frequented the 'moat'...

 

Raptors... There were plenty of Kestrels and Buzzards along with the occasional Sparrowhawk and Peregrine but nothing else.

Kestrel © Charlie Wheeler 

Passerines etc... There was very little in the way of migrant passerines this week either with only a few Yellow Wagtails and a single Wheatear in the adjacent fields. There were however still plenty of Swallows and House Martins, a few Sand Martins and a latish Swift moving through overhead, along with a few Meadow Pipits, the first few passage Skylarks and the first Song Thrush for a few months. There was no real change in the withy and reedbeds either with Chiffchaffs and Sedge Warblers still predominating along with a few Blackcaps and the odd Whitethroat but precious little else!

I'll leave you with an image of a Migrant Hawker Dragonfly that work colleague Charlie captured this week...

Migrant Hawker © Charlie Wheeler 

Thanks to Charlie for the use of some of the above images. Click the following link to check out Charlie's web site wheeler-photography.