Good morning. It turned out to be another exciting day here yesterday. Despite my reports of negative news on both of the reserve rarities mentioned in yesterday’s blog post, they both reappeared before the day was out!
The little bittern was actually heard barking twice in its usual haunt just east of Joist Fen viewpoint yesterday morning. It was then not heard until right at the end of the day, but more about that later on......
There were plenty of people out looking for both the little bittern and the collared pratincole during the day with no success. As a consolation, there were at least 12 hobbys hunting over Joist Fen viewpoint and two turtle doves flew over. There was also a small migration of painted lady butterflies through the reserve.
As the day went on, no positive news about either species was forthcoming but something that was e-mailed to me really helped to brightened up my day:
Image credits: Richard Thewlis
Richard sketched these on Sunday evening when he was lucky enough to see the collared pratincole. It actually features in both images with its slim profile, deep red underwing and forked tail. Thank you very much to Richard for sharing these great sketches with us.
The news that we had all been waiting for broke just before 4pm: the collared pratincole had been seen from the Public Footpath in Botany Bay, at the far end of the reserve!
At the end of my working day (give or take a few minutes anyway!) I headed down to Joist Fen viewpoint and on the way down to the viewpoint. There were several banded demoiselles on the wing and a late common sandpiper flew east along the river.
When I got down to the viewpoint, I had a distant view of a flying bittern and a pair of marsh harriers performed a breathtaking food pass right in front of me. A couple of bearded tits flew across the reeds in front of me and there seemed to be cuckoos everywhere. Over the course of the evening, I saw at least eight individual birds.
A sparrowhawk flew directly over the viewpoint, being pursued by a kestrel. A couple of hobbys started to appear, and a small flock of starlings started flying around over the reedbed....
...And at 8.55pm, over the top of the aforementioned flock of starlings, flew the collared pratincole! It wasn't in view for long but its graceful flight style was unmistakable, even at relatively long range. Hooray! Sadly, it disappeared to view rather quicker than hoped for and it seemed to land somewhere in the reedbeds.
As we walked back through the reserve, we didn't hear the little bittern but somebody else did. It seems to have moved and was heard somewhere in the reeds just west of Trial Wood. It’s great to know that it’s still here and hopefully, it will become slightly more showy now that it has moved!
We hope to see you soon!