Florence OTL

I managed to add Nightingale to the ol' SFYL tonight with two near Sandy.  Unfortunately I was a few seconds too late to add Barwit though - Martin Stevens picked one up flying in at Broom this evening, and a lovely brick-red male too.

The shot of Matt above is him all ready for the in coming storm.  Fireman Sam to the rescue!

Thurleigh godwits

Well I never!  My fifth SFYT of the day and one I might have expected at lunchtime at Broom. Arriving at Keysoe Row West and scanning with bins, four waders. Flying away the blighters...but landing. Trouble was, about a km away at the end of the runway. But were they Bar wits or Whimbrel? So with just 30 mins to go before I had to take Frankie to cubs, I ran, yes ran, coat on and and scope in hand, down to the end of the airfield where I found four fabulous Bar-tailed Godwits feeding with the Wood Pigeons. Even managed a quality iPhone shot as the flew off.

Four Warbs

Failed Nightingale survey this morning at Wyboston but the trip got me Reed Warbler and Garden Warbler for the year.  A stop off at Waterloo Thorns on the way to work gave me Whitethroat and best of all, a Grasshopper Warbler - not a species I was expecting to get as I don't generally see/hear them in my usual birding haunts. 

Sandwich filling

Some decent birds at last - but by the skin of my teeth.  After spending an hour at Roxton last night and an hour at Wyboston this morning, there was no sign of any gull or tern movement for me despite there being hundreds at Grafham and a fair few at Broom.  So after an appalling lunchtime (but thanks for the company Steve...), Mark Ward was sent on an errand to get some pet food by his other half.  Stopping off at Derek's he finds some Arctics (where we had none) and then on to Broom and finds...some Arctics (where we had none).  And we got wet.  Seems like after the rain, the birds flooded in.  I watched the messages of quality birds appear on my screen for about 20 minutes before cracking and taking another lunch break and heading to Broom (passing a tern filled Derek White's).  At Broom, lots of Arctics on show, and a considerable passage carrying on for the 90 mins I was there.  But best was the large white tern I saw on arrival - a nice 'grip back' after last week's near miss - a fine Sandwich Tern.  Also here was the county's first Sanderling of the year which didn't stay.  A couple of Swifts added another.  But no Little Gulls.  Can't be too greedy I guess...

Here's a shot of some Arctics and a bigger one.  Nice aren't they.

On my way back home and with 25 mins to get to the school to pick up the kids, I reckoned I could check Roxton in just five.  I did, and scored an adult Little Gull.  That's more like it.

Now then, House Martins...

Lunchtime sandwich was my best yet

Eggs Sandwich

The last week or so hasn’t been the tick-fest we were hoping for.  However, I’ve managed to extract a few species on my travels.  Best of these has been a Sandwich Tern under the nose of RIB, which stayed for less than half an hour at Derek’s.  Also had my first Cuckoo, Reed Warbler, Whitethroats, Sedgies and so on but still lacking some of the later stuff – Garden Warblers, Nightingale etc.  I also did my usual check of our shared Firecrest population and found an excellent six singing males over the weekend – the best score yet since monitoring began.

So, where are the easterlies?

They're avoiding me!

Out in the field and birding by 6am and three and a half solid birding at the prime sites of Harrold and Radwell.  You'd think I'd be rewarded with some migrant padders.  Well thanks a lot Bedfordshire...for the Sedge Warbler valiantly singing all by itself at Harrold.  Where were the Reed Warblers and Cuckoos?  Then some hedgerow wanderings and driving-with-the-windows-down failed to give me either whitethroat species.  And as for House Martin...

The much needed Garganeys, Whimbrels, Redstarts and Ring Ouzels didn't show either.

So now we have the (quite frankly shocking) situation of MJP jumping into second place, a mere nine scarce quality passage migrants behind SCB.  The sly Mr Grimsey is also doing well.

A Harrold scenic.  A local initiative to improve the view of the Cormorant colony.

Bricking it up

In order to try to keep up and strengthen up some ticks, I have been poking around in the brick pits on the last two Saturday mornings. A cold and gloomier morning on the 14^th brought me a couple of Little Gulls on the Pillinge which left eastwards 25 minutes before two identical birds arrived at Broom. Also my first two Groppers and an early Lesser Whitethroat to add to a handful of other expected new visitors and a good look at a Slav Grebe of course. Thought I had caught a nice photo of this as well until a couple of minutes after posting on Bedsbirds Images Blog when some others images appeared and I realised that in comparison it was sh*t.

This morning, 21^st, a Cettis warbler singing at the far western end of Brogborough was a proper self-find to add to the weak previous claim on the unmissable three that I have had within MVCP. A Common Sandpiper flitting across the water from the bricks in the SE corner of the lake was also a good list padder as these are not a species you can just go out and get.

The other weaker tick I had for the list this year was LRP at Broom, for which I have taken a couple of barbed comments, so it was good to come across two of my own on new sites for me this morning. One individual was on the MVCP Pillinge and another was found on the flattened rubble of a previous industrial complex. A nice morning to be out with plenty of warblers now in and singing and my first Cuckoo of the year as well…