More Migrants

Last Sunday I had a text to say that there was a Little Ringed Plover on the Deep Water Lake. At first I decided I would wait until Monday morning to see it, but then quickly changed my mind as Little Ringed Plover hasn't been seen at the reserve for a few years. I'm glad I made that decision because on Monday it was nowhere to be seen!

Also present was my first Common Sandpiper of the year for patch.

Either one, two or three male Garganey were present on Monday, all seen at different locations so hard to know just how many there were. A summer plumaged Spotted Redshank was in front of the British Steel hide on Tuesday which was really nice to see.

New birds for the year seen during mid week were 30+ Whimbrel, a few singing Lesser Whitethroats, Whitethoats and a Swift. Two male Ruff were on the NRA fields on Wednesday and another had joined them on Friday.

Ruff

On Thursday morning before work, I had a couple of hours look at the estuary in the hope of seeing two Little Terns which were there the previous day, but I ended up missing them by a few minutes which was annoying. There were however some rather lovely looking Bar-tailed Godwits along the shoreline, and the bushes were alive with the sound of singing Whitethoats and Lesser Whitethoats.

Bar-tailed Godwit

Today I spent the morning at Machynys point, but the only birds of note were two Sandwich Terns, a Gannet and three House Martins, plus more Lesser Whitethoats.

Linnet

Little Gull

I made two visits to Sandy Water Park today in the hope that the Little Gull found a couple of days ago by Barry would still be there. On the first visit at 8am, the only small gulls on the lake were two Black-headed Gulls, so I had a quick check of the estuary and North Dock Lake and decided I would check back in the late afternoon.

I arrived back at 5:30pm, and was pleased to see a good number of gulls there. It didn't take me long to find the Little Gull which was sat on the water with some Black-headed Gulls, occasionally lifting off to give short flights. What a stunning little bird! Here are a series of photos I digiscoped of it...

A Gannet was fishing in the estuary, and on the sand bar there were 18 Sandwich Terns with eight Common Gulls, a 3cy Mediterranean Gull and c.40+ Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

On North Dock Lake the only bird of note was a Common Sandpiper on a pontoon.

Common Sandpiper

Egyptian Goose and GS Cuckoo

An Egyptian Goose turned up on the Lagoon on Wednesday, and after a failed attempt to see it during my lunch break, I had another look at the end of the day and found it right in front of the Observatory.

During my breeding bird survey, I heard the first five Sedge Warblers of the year, singing around the header pond and Eastern Scrapes. The first House Martin also flew over with c.15+ Sand Martin and c.40+ Swallow.

Egyptian Goose

After work on Thursday, I went to see the Great Spotted Cuckoo that had been found just south of the Brecon Beacons. It didn't seem very promising on arrival, passing half a dozen birders leaving the site having failed to see it, and being told that it had flown off two hours ago. A small group of us started scanning the hills and after about 15 minutes I picked it up on a fence line just under a mile away. It hopped along the fence line for about 20 minutes, being constantly mobbed by a few Meadow Pipits, and flew off to the right and out of view giving some nice if a little distant flight views.

Great Spotted Cuckoo

Bee Fly and Gropper

While out replacing some posts on a fence line around the saltmarsh this morning, I heard my first Grasshopper Warbler and Reed Warbler coming from the same reedbed on Machynys golf course. Some nice early records and nice to hear them both singing.

On the reserve, this Bee Fly was on one of our reptile piles, as was my first Common Lizard of the year.

A pretty cool looking insect!

Common Lizard

There are a fair few hoverflies out now too, including this which a believe is Epistrophe grossulariae.

Spring

It really feels like spring has arrived this week. I saw my first Swallows on Monday along with the first Willow Warblers. On Tuesday there was an overnight arrival of Blackcap with eight singing on site along with the same numbers of Willow Warblers. During my breeding bird survey, I counted 20 singing Chiffchaff around the Millennium Wetlands.

A number of new butterflies were also out, with my first Orange-tips, Commas, Speckled Woods and Green-veined Whites.

At least ten Mediterranean Gulls have been around over the last two weeks, so it seems like its not a question of whether they'll breed again, but how many. Most have been adults, but there have also been some third year birds.

Yesterday I walked along the coast path to Machynys point where I found my first Wheatear of the year flitting around on the rocky shore. A look out over the estuary revealed my first Sandwich Tern fishing, while over the golf course were c.100 Sand Martins and two Swallows. In the bushes there were eight Willow Warbler, four Chiffchaff and three Blackcap.

On a quick visit to North Dock Lake, a migrant Common Sandpiper flew up and headed down river.

Wheatear

Garganey

I caught up with one of the Garganeys at the centre today, and after doing three rounds of the hides I jammed into it swimming a few metres in front of the Goodall's hide. It was so close I could hear it's quiet crackling call.

Garganey

There were impressive numbers of waders on the lagoon considering it was low tide. I didn't have time to count them, but there were c.350+ Black-tailed Godwit (including some stunning summer plumage birds), c.100+ Redshank, eight Greenshank and three Spotted Redshank which were starting to gain some flecks of their summer plumage.

Black-tailed Godwit

Spotted Redshank