Monday 8th to Sunday 14th September 2014...

Swannery Birding Highlights Of The Week... 

Wildfowl...

Joining the regular female Scaup in the steadily increasing Pochard/Tufted Duck flock this week was the first Goldeneye of the autumn... 

The moulting adult male Goldeneye

With high spring tides dabbler numbers were pretty much the same as last week, with a peak of around 150 Teal, 20 Shoveler, 20 Wigeon, 20 Pintail & 5 Gadwall.

Waders...

The best wader of the week was again a Spotted Redshank (Tuesday), that this time was only a fly-over, as was yet another Wood Sandpiper (Monday) but a Little Stint did dally briefly (today)... 

 

Above two images (the second more heavily cropped) this morning's brief juv. Little Stint on meadow pool.
It was a year ago this month of course that this same pool held The Swannery's first Semi-palmated Sandpiper, which also happened to be my last Swannery tick!

Last Sunday's Knot lingered to Monday, whilst peak counts of commoner species were Dunlin 5; Ringed Plover 3; Common Sandpiper 2; Green Sandpiper 2; Greenshank 1; Curlew 1 and Snipe 1. 

Gulls & Terns...

This proved to be the first week that there were no terns of any species present since early April and the only gulls of any note at all were a few Mediterraneans!

Other water-birds...

There's not really much to add to last week's tally, but the novelty of now regular Kingfisher and Water Rail sightings after an absence in the summer has not yet diminished...  

Kingfisher off Bum Point

Raptors... 

The autumn's second Merlin was seen on Monday, whilst the only other raptor of any real note was the regular male Marsh Harrier. 

Passerines etc...

Of the 100 or so Yellow Wagtails present in Monday night's roost, Steve & Luke managed to ring 30 including 3 flavas. A few of the latter continental race birds (known as 'Blue-headed Wagtails') are now ringed annually at The Swannery roost (although rare, less than annual 'in-the-field' sightings, are usually confined to the occasional adult male in the Spring). A few possible thunbergi Scandinavian race birds (known as 'Grey-headed Wagtails') have also been ringed in recent years but none so far this year, despite the easterly airflow. Amongst the Pied Wagtails feeding in the meadow however, I did manage to pick out a few continental/Icelandic race albas (known as 'White Wagtails'). There were no other real surprises this week though, with only single figures of Wheatear and a single Spotted Flycatcher in the fields and hedgerows but still plenty of Swallows, House and Sand Martins moving through overhead along with a few Meadow Pipits. There was no real change in the withy and reedbeds either with, not surprisingly, Chiffchaffs predominating in the former and Sedge Warblers in the latter but unfortunately there were no additional species from last week's tally. So with scarcer migrants now arriving in force on the east coast let's hope some will filter down this way real soon!

I'll leave with a couple of other wildlife images captured this week...

Not everyone's cup of tea... Grey Squirrel on the roof of Meadow Hide

Not everyone's cup of tea for different reasons... young Grass Snake