When I'm slaving away at the metaphorical coal face I get somewhat philosophical when various texts or messages come through informing me of rare bird sightings in the county. It's not that often that some news comes through that makes me consider pulling a sickie but that was most definitely the case earlier in the week. When regular patch worker and pooch pack perambulator Eleanor McMahon found a couple of Dotterels at Harrington earlier in the week I almost felt physically sick as these super attractive plovers are some of my favourite birds. I was already trying to work out how I could get there when news emerged that the birds had done a bunk leaving me feeling disappointed but also slightly relieved - my wife does not believe that twitches (even for Dotterels!) are a legitimate reason for taking a day off! Fast forward several days and I found myself looking at my own plovers even if they were slightly more humdrum than Eleanor's!.
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| Ringed and Little Ringed record shots. |
I currently find myself in between jobs as of yesterday and have a fortnight and a holiday to Lesvos to enjoy before my nose once again gets pressed firmly to the grindstone. With lovely spring weather in store and a day to kill I decided to concentrate on some local sites in the hope of catching up with some interesting wildlife. My day began with a walk down to Weldon from where I went on to check out a local site for Ringed Plovers. It took a while but my efforts bore fruit as I found one bird occupying its regular site. A look for Wheatears at nearby Willowbrook Industrial Estate was decidedly less successful but I did hear at least one song-flighting Meadow Pipit in addition to several Skylarks.
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| Red Kite, Skylark and Linnet |
The North Gullet at Priors Hall provided some more plover entertainment as two pairs of Little Ringeds appeared to be hotly contesting a fenced off territory on the edge of the building site. I spent over half an hour watching their antics before I moved on. Both the North and South Gullets proved to be less than fascinating as I walked along while at the Quarry Lake the now regular great Crested Grebes were in residence and the colony of Sand Martins seems to be doing well. From here I made my way to the ponds where my search for early Large Red Damselflies began. Butterflies flitting around the area included plenty of Speckled Woods and smaller numbers of Brimstones, Peacocks, Green-veined White and Orange-tips, there were no interesting birds to report.
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| Speckled Wood and Large Red Damselflies |
My search for odes started slowly which wasn't a surprise as it was still very early in the season. Luck did decide to pay a call however as I caught a glimpse of a teneral damsel flying weakly towards an imposing looking bramble bush. I couldn't find it afterwards and missed the chance to get a picture but I was still very happy, this was my earliest Large Red by two days. Buoyed by this success I redoubled my efforts and was rewarded with sightings of four more, happily for me two of them posed for photographs. By now the day was getting decidedly hot and I opted to return to Weldon. The Quarry Lake on the return leg now held a group of the larger gulls and a look through them revealed a second summer Caspian and also a Yellow-legged amongst them. On my walk though the village towards a medicinal rehydrating stop at the George the Merlin bird sound app reported hearing a Redstart. I was interested for all of ten seconds before the "Redstart" started singing chiff-chaff! No matter as a pint of cider made as good a way as any of closing my walk.
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| Yellow-legged and Caspian Gulls |
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