Saturday 11th October
Another glorious morning with bright sunshine and just a gentle breeze.
It was rather a sociable session down on the Meadow this morning with up to seven birders present at various times apart from myself. Collectively we were able to enjoy the same recent birds as have been around for a while now: 30+ BLACK-TAILED GODWITS still seeming very much at home, 6 RUFF now with two pale adult males now present, a count of 70 SNIPE this morning and varying numbers of GOLDEN PLOVER up to at least 60. There was a goldcrest and a chiffchaff in the willows at the bottom of Walton Well road and a few flyover meadow pipits with plenty more seen by some birders on a specific pipit hunt north of the floods but nothing more unusual turned up. At one point a giant kite of the non bird variety seemed to spook almost all the birds which was an impressive sight as they all took to the air at once.
Intriguingly, one of the birders mentioned that he saw a honey buzzard flying around the University Parks yesterday
A digiscoped shot of some of the golden plover this morning © Adam Hartley
It was rather a sociable session down on the Meadow this morning with up to seven birders present at various times apart from myself. Collectively we were able to enjoy the same recent birds as have been around for a while now: 30+ BLACK-TAILED GODWITS still seeming very much at home, 6 RUFF now with two pale adult males now present, a count of 70 SNIPE this morning and varying numbers of GOLDEN PLOVER up to at least 60. There was a goldcrest and a chiffchaff in the willows at the bottom of Walton Well road and a few flyover meadow pipits with plenty more seen by some birders on a specific pipit hunt north of the floods but nothing more unusual turned up. At one point a giant kite of the non bird variety seemed to spook almost all the birds which was an impressive sight as they all took to the air at once.
Intriguingly, one of the birders mentioned that he saw a honey buzzard flying around the University Parks yesterday
A digiscoped shot of some of the golden plover this morning © Adam Hartley