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.
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