Complete the sentence – ‘You know spring is in full swing when you see...?’
Well, for me it’s a small blur of brown and white; a confident flyer with a forked tail and a distinct brown breast band. It always takes a moment for me to remember, having not seen them for six or seven months. But then that’s the way with sand martins - here one minute and then zipping off to Africa all too soon.
Either way, their arrival is always a welcome sign that, despite overcast skies that point to the contrary, spring is underway.
They’re back! Sand martins investigate the artificial nesting bank on the Mere
Thanks to Karen this morning we know that on Bolton Ings there were two Cetti’s warblers, one willow tit (hooray) – unringed, fourteen chaffinch, sixteen male reed buntings, one willow warbler, a blackcap and eleven pochard. There were also five little grebe, seven great crested grebe, two water rail, five snipe, a jack snipe, one buzzard, a sparrowhawk, two kingfisher and one sand martin.
It was also good to know that the recent pair of garganey could still be found at the remarkable Adwick Washland. With them were two oystercatcher, ten (or more) sand martin, thirty plus swallow, three pink-footed geese, a chiffchaff and a marsh harrier. My thanks to John Law for those observations.
At Old Moor, on the Reedbed Trail, a bittern was booming regularly this morning. There were also sightings of a green woodpecker by the wildlife ponds along with tufted duck and both little and great crested grebe from the Bittern Hide.
In the Bird Garden and Tree Sparrow Farm today there were: blackbird, blue tit, bullfinch, chaffinch, chiffchaff, collared dove, crow, dunnock, goldfinch, great tit, greenfinch, long-tailed tit, magpie, mallard, pheasant, reed bunting, robin, stock dove, tree sparrow and yellowhammer.
On the Mere there were: eleven cormorant, five pochard, three lesser black backed gull, two oystercatcher and six sand martin and one Mediterranean gull along with wigeon, shoveler, teal, tufted duck. I also have a report of seven buzzard over the back of the Mere today.
The Field Pool provided views of: two more oystercatcher and five snipe along with wigeon, Canada geese, stock dove, lapwing, tufted duck, jackdaw, little grebe, dunnock, long-tailed tit, great tit and wren.
A drake garganey at Adwick Washland from Gary Stones. Thanks Gary.
Watchers on Green Lane today recorded a male blackcap, a willow warbler, a singing chiffchaff and a song thrush.
On the Wader Scrape a green sandpiper was joined by one avocet, three mute swan, three oystercatcher, two lesser black-backed gull, five shoveler and three Mediterranean gulls. That last sighting needs a bit more detail. This afternoon I could find four Med. gulls at Old Moor though last night there were eight! Yes, eight – that has to be some kind of record.
Perhaps more excitingly, two of the three Med. gulls that I could see on the Scrape were definitely a pair. I’m pretty sure that breeding Meds would be a first for the reserve. As one wag in the hide put it, “Keep this up and we’ll have a colony!”
One of four at Old Moor today
Finishing up the trip around Old Moor with a stop at Wath Ings, reported here today were: two grey heron, one little egret and five goldeneye as well as teal, wigeon, tufted duck, gadwall, moorhen, coot and mute swan.
And that about wraps things up for this evening – though bear in mind that, as I type this, there will be watchers still out there, enjoying the birds of the Dearne Valley. Anything could turn up yet!
Until next time.