Monday 26th April 2010 - Evening Visit

An evening visit to the reverve produced the following observations by Tim Twiggs:


Reed Bunting in bushes on bank of Red River ditch by Sandsifter and 2 Reed Warbler there. A Peregrine flew over main pool  and 3 Northern Wheatear (1 male) - pair(?) to left of main track before fenced area by concrete blocks and second female in area between main pool and road. 8+ Swallow - only had single birds recently so a small influx? Moorhen - an adult with a single very young chick and Gadwall - male still on main pool.

Evening Visit

I decided on a late evening visit on the patch tonight, mainly to avoid the dog-walkers. How wrong could i be! Why does it take 5 people to walk one dog? Or the other extreme where one person owns five or more bloody dogs! They are never on leads and their owners talk to each other as if they are 3 miles away from one another. Not suprisingly most of the birds were content to remain within the relative safety and tranquility of the fenced off areas. Thanks God for fenced off areas!

Only two pairs of Shelduck were on the main pool this evening, keeping a watchful eye on a couple of Common Buzzards nearby. The Mallard chicks seem to be happy on the westernmost pools and two moorhen were on the bottom small pool (with the reed bed). Over 50 Sand Martins and a dozen or so Swallows were over the reserve and three Wheatears were around the westernmost pools. Really must think up some permanent names for the different areas. Main Pool should remain as such, but anyone ideas for the other areas?

Recent Reports

Sam Williams saw four Wheatears on the reserve on the 14th and managed the great shot shown here. He also reports lots of Sand Martins and eight Swallows.