I love this time of year, when it is light enough to go out birding for a few hours after work. I got to Druridge at 7pm and left at 9.20pm and there was still plenty of light, by December it will have been dark for five hours at 9.20pm, now there's a sobering thought.
Anyhoo, birding was good tonight. I started with a look on the sea as the tide was high. A scan of the 500 or so scoters produced no oddities, a couple of roseate terns fed close in and on the sea were great-crested grebes, red-breasted mergansers and red-throated divers. Ringed plovers, dunlin and a handful of manx shearwaters were also on the move.
On the Budge fields, it started quiet, with two little egrets roosting on the edge of the shelterbelt, a third flew in onto the fields and the two roosters joined it, soon to disappear amongst the rush. Soon after, three spoonbills came in from somewhere and settled down to feed. Waders came and went through the rushes including about 12 dunlin, a male ruff in moult, a black-tailed godwit and a handful of snipe.
A barn owl was hunting and then settled on a fencepost in front of the shelterbelt to rip apart a vole and a female marsh harrier flew north.
A very pleasant evening indeed!
5 comments:
I've visited for the last 2 mornings and saw the pair of GC Grebes on the main pool yesterday displaying briefly. Today i noticed a nest which i'm almost sure wasn't there yesterday. The Grebes displayed again with the female taking position on the nest for mating a short while later. The male seemed disimterested for five minutes or so but after much posturing by the female the pair finally mated. You had GCGs breeding there recently ?
Not had GCGs breeding for a few years, let's hope they are successful. Thanks for tip-off
Hi Iain
Was your ruff a pale bird with a few black spots by any chance ? Wondering if it might be the same bird from Low Newton which flew off south at around 7.30 last night.
Stringer, that sounds like the same bird - exactly how I would have described it
The Gcgs nest was looking worryingly close to the water this evening (Sun) when i visited briefly. If we get one of those thunderstorms they keep threatening us with it might be curtains. It looks to have "settled" and they haven't added to it.
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