26th and 27th June


A glorious day on the 26th with light westerly winds and plenty of warm sunshine; the day’s highlight was a marvellously confiding female Red-necked Phalarope on Gretchen – our ninth of the year so far (assuming, of course that they are different birds but with none of them showing any signs of displaying or breeding and most staying less than a day we can fairly safely say that they were all just passage birds).   Other birds of note were few and far between with 72 Turnstone counted, a flyover Redpoll sp. and Lapwings starting to form larger post-breeding flocks including 40 just behind Cott the best we could dredge up!

Despite being super aggressive, its unclear whether our two pairs of Bonxies have actually made a nest or not!


                Another beautiful day with plenty of sunshine on the 27th but the wind had switched round to the east adding a bit of a chilly feel to proceedings; there were now 2 Red-necked Phalaropes feeding frantically on Gretchen while other wader counts included 75 Knot, 24 Sanderling, 25 Dunlin, 66 Turnstone and a notable increase to 43 Golden Plover with a Red-breasted Merganser at Bewan the only other new bird of note.

Gorgeous Red-necked Phalarope on Gretchen

Many of the Wheatear pairs have nearly fledged chicks now, productivity seems to have been pretty good.

Comments