Thursday 24th July: Snipe
The weather this morning rather pleasant: sunny and warm with a gentle breeze.
The birds this morning pretty similar to the last couple of days: 11 LITTLE EGRETS this morning, the 3 DUNLIN on the north shore still and now only 2 LITTLE RINGED PLOVERS remaining at stint corner. 2 COMMON SANDPIPERS along the north shore were a new addition. Apart from that, still lots of black-headed gulls and the odd lesser black-backed gull. Plenty of lapwings and the COMMON TERNS still. I saw a grey heron catch a rather large (about half a pound) tench in the flood waters, which it managed to swallow whole after a bit of difficulty.
On the Trap Grounds this morning: the reed warblers still singing in the reeds and a couple of bullfinches in the glade. In the allotments: a juvenile green woodpecker, a greater spotted woodpecker and several blackcaps.
In the evening:
4 SNIPE feeding on the floods just north of Burgess Creek till they were flushed by two boys trying to wheel their bikes across the creek!
One of the long-staying terns © Steve Burch
The birds this morning pretty similar to the last couple of days: 11 LITTLE EGRETS this morning, the 3 DUNLIN on the north shore still and now only 2 LITTLE RINGED PLOVERS remaining at stint corner. 2 COMMON SANDPIPERS along the north shore were a new addition. Apart from that, still lots of black-headed gulls and the odd lesser black-backed gull. Plenty of lapwings and the COMMON TERNS still. I saw a grey heron catch a rather large (about half a pound) tench in the flood waters, which it managed to swallow whole after a bit of difficulty.
On the Trap Grounds this morning: the reed warblers still singing in the reeds and a couple of bullfinches in the glade. In the allotments: a juvenile green woodpecker, a greater spotted woodpecker and several blackcaps.
In the evening:
4 SNIPE feeding on the floods just north of Burgess Creek till they were flushed by two boys trying to wheel their bikes across the creek!
One of the long-staying terns © Steve Burch
11:36 AM, Thursday, July 24, 2008 . Publisehd by Anonymous
First visit here as new job in area, am a Berks birder normally, wish we had a site as good as this!Anyway 15 Little Egrets, 5 Common Tern, 2 Teal and 2 Snipe hiding amongst Lapwing.
Fraser Cottington
fraser1947@hotmail.com