Thursday, 30 August 2012

Catch up 23rd August to 30th August

August 23rd Draycote Water
Female/immature Wheatear along farborough Bank plus 4 Yellow Wagtail while an adult Yellow-legged Gull was on one of the buoys and 100+Swift over the north shore

Bank Holiday Weekend
Spent the bank holiday mothing in Kent with the odd bit of birding and cricket thrown in when it wasn’t to wet or blustery. Trapped a few unfamiliar species that I don’t see in my home county such as Mullien Wave, Mathews Wainscot, Star-wort, Feathered Ranunculus, Tree Lichen Beauty, Plumed Fan-foot, Pretty Chalk Carpet, Scarce Chocolate-tip and Sharp-angled Peacock while there were a few obvious migrants around such as Rush Veneer, Rusty Dot Pearl and Silver Y. On the birding front Purple Heron, Great White Egret, a few Garganey and a reasonable skua passage kept the day hobby ticking over.
I’m not a cricket lover – preferring the game to be livened up with tip and run using tennis balls but I got roped in to a charity match which played under cricketing rules in the first innings which was boring but as the tide came in for the second innings then the rules became more bizarre with the encroaching sea the boundary which made sixes dead easy to get and the inebriated umpires insisting the ball was in play when a dog ran off with it allowing one batsmen to score 76 in an over while everyone else ran around like silly buggers trying to catch the pooch. Luckily they finally decided to end the match when the bails drifted off. Still it was fun.

August 29th Draycote Water
Certainly a bit of passage going on when Dave and I popped in to the pond before the heavy rain arrived with at least one possibly two Blue-headed Wagtails on farborough bank and 14 Yellow Wagtail on toft bank along with 4 juvenile and one adult male Wheatear plus 3 Swift were over the north side.

August 30th Draycote Water
A blustery west wind turning north west gusting occasionally over 20mph with the odd shower thrown in for comfort, but no hoped for sea-birds - just 2 Common Tern present. Other sightings Grey Wagtail, 3 Wheatear, 6 Yellow Wagtail but no sign of any blue-heads, single Common Sandpiper and Dunlin. A Vapourer Moth and Migrant Hawker were in toft shallows. Single juvenile Raven and 2 Buzzard over windmill lane on the way home.

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