Unfortunately last weeks excitement of a not one but TWO Mediterranean wanderers was very short lived indeed, as by the 27th we were back to a single Glossy Ibis. Not that we're grumbling about a solitary 'Black Curlew' it's more a shame for them as they looked to be getting on so well the day before. Still, the remaining bird continues to be well seen across the reserve, mostly frequenting the flooded grassland opposite the bench on the public footpath, but has now added south scrape to it's regular haunts and can be seen easily from the bench.
Glossy Ibis - Ian Ellis
The other notable 'non-wader' highlight this week was an adult Black Tern that popped in all too briefly on the 2nd. It spent the afternoon hawking insects over the reedbed but wasn't seen the next day. Of the 2 records we've had this year neither have lingered but with all the food that's about to irrupt from our fertile midge breeding grounds of the scrapes and grassland I'm confident that we'll cling on to one sooner rather than later.
And so to our waders. The last weekend of June came up trumps with 2 new waders for the month. A super smart Little Stint was found on the afternoon of the 28th and those out looking for it the following day were lucky enough to stumble on an equally wonderful Wood Sandpiper. As mentioned last week, it is noticeable that return wader migration had started and these two gems, along with the Curlew Sandpiper that secreted itself among the godwits on the 2nd, show that birds are moving all the time and are out there to be found. Of the three birds just mentioned, only the Little Stint was seen after the day it was found.
Wood Sandpiper - Ian Ellis
Trying to get an accurate count of Black-tailed Godwit at the moment is next to impossible for two reasons. Firstly it's the peak of summer and the grass is pretty long so easy to miss a couple, but secondly, and a much cooler reason, is the fact that birds are dropping in ALL THE TIME!! And it's not just me in awe of and noticing this movement. The legendary Spurn Bird Observatory had their highest ever daily movement of Black-tailed Godwit on the 3rd with 256 going south, beating their previous best tally by 145! Last week Bar-tailed Godwit numbers just had the edge over their leggier cousins but their run is now over, with nearly a 2:1 ratio in favour of Black-taileds. Will we reach the 6,000+ peak of last year?
Black-tailed (most of the red ones) and Bar-tailed (most of the pale ones) Godwits
Bar-tailed Godwits
And for those that had a crack at counting the flock picture from last week (did anyone) the number I got (see method above) was 284. To count large flocks break it down into countable chunks, in this case 20, and then count the space 20 birds occupy rather than the birds themselves. Have a go next time our waders, or if you're feeling REALLY brave, our Starlings, take flight.
If counting them proves too easy/hard then another challenge I set for you is to identify the Black-tailed Godwits down to race. Are they the richer red and commoner Icelandic birds or the paler and scarcer Continental race? Some pointers can be found here and here and a little video to have a practice on is below.
Other peak counts this week include 15 Green Sandpiper, 8 Ruff, 3 Spotted Redshank, 2 Common Sandpiper, 8 Dunlin, 3 Golden Plover, 16 Little Ringed Plover, 2 Snipe, 5 Turnstone and 2 Greenshank.
Common Sandpiper
Ruff - Ian Ellis
While it is easy to have the eyes drawn to our new arrivals that haven't had a good breeding season, it's worth mentioning that our breeding season continues with new chicks still popping up. This prolonged breeding season shows we have created and are managing some pretty special habitat for all sorts of species. Both young Redshank and even younger Lapwing can be seen feeding from the sea bank car park and a few young Ringed and Little Ringed Plover are playing hide and seek on south scrape.
Lapwing chick
Tearing myself away from waders and we've had another fantastic week of both number and variety. While it is easy to make the week sound good by spreading these sightings out, have a look at what our site manager John saw on the 29th alone, not too shabby at all.
While some of those are hit and miss (Hobby is usually fly through at this time of year) most can be picked up with a bit of effort and local knowledge.
The main bird that lots of visitors ask to see, and a few got in touch after my offer of a map last week, is Turtle Dove. It's not massively easy to describe their locations so have made a print out and keep map of where to look for them.
The best places to hear them is within the red ranges and the best place to see them is from the yellow circles. The big one is the barns on the way to/from the reserve and the small one is at the top of the Marsh Farm track which lets you look back along the hedge. Hope this helps those who may not have been lucky enough to see them this year.
At least one Little Gull is still with us and a peak of three Garganey were on the wet grassland. These are getting harder to pick out due to the standout males moulting into eclipse and the longer grass allowing them to be ever more elusive.
Garganey - Ian Ellis
A Barn Owl was seen on three mornings last week so may well be worth popping over early to see one and get some early morning practice in before some big high tides next week.
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Well that's all from me this week. Enjoy your weekend everyone, and if you can't wait 7 days to know what's going on here, keep your finger on the Lincolnshire Wash Reserves pulse by following us on Twitter and giving us a ‘like’ on Facebook.
The more you're out the more you see - https://twitter.com/BoyWonderBirder