1-31 July 2010 blog and sightings

1-8 August 2010 I was in Corsica for the week, trip  report to follow soon…

31 July 2010 A day trip to the New Forest. See the trip report.

28 July 2010 A pair of Southern Hawker were along the back of the South Lake.

27 July 2010 JSL and I had at least 45 Yellow Wagtail feeding among the cattle on the Dumbles at WWT Slimbridge.

Common Tern see below

25 July 2010 At WWT Slimbridge I had a darvic ringed second summer Mediterranean Gull in the morning gull roost, I will follow up the sighting and report back. Plenty of waders still about the scrapes with two Sanderling seen on the morning tide and three in the evening, an adult Turnstone, a Whimbrel and five Ringed Plover were also added to the list. The evening gull special produced a juvenile and adult breeding Mediterranean Gull and c25 adult Yellow legged Gulls. RGB reported a fem/imm Marsh Harrier around the 100 Acre from 0800 and I saw it cruise down the estuary and Dumbles from 0905-0920 where it flushed pretty much everything it flew over. A roost of c40 Yellow Wagtails was very much of note, we saw 17 chasing a Kestrel. I caught and released a Common Tern that was entagled in the 100 Acre early evening whilst checking the colony.

24 July 2010 No birding.

‘Green Sand’
The last week of July usually sees the peak counts of this bird around the WWT scrapes with figures of over 30 not uncommon, a highly mobile bird which makes a bike and decent pedalling speed crucial for attaining an accurate count.

17-23 July 2010 The only birding I have managed has been at WWT Slimbridge where passage waders continue to arrive around the scrapes. On 21st I had three Greenshank, 2 Ruff, 44 Dunlin including two juveniles ( I had my first juv on 18th), five Little ringed Plover, 11 Green Sandpiper and 40 Lapwing all on the Top New Piece alone. A flock of up to 44 Black-tailed Godwit, 20 Redshank and a few Common Sandpipers have also been around. As for returning passage birds a Ringed Plover on 18/19th and  two Snipe on the 22nd were a sign of things to come. I discovered a second Emerald Damselfly on the reserve on the 19th.

16 July 2010 No birding just limping but I had heard that P. Taylor scored with a Storm Petrel on the Severn.

15 July 2010 A very gusty day on the Severn, despite a few birders watching over it not seabirds were noted. 91 Dunlin, 6 Little ringed Plover, a Greenshank, 40 Black-tailed Godwit were the best I could muster. I did spend the night and most of the day in pain with the damaged nerve endings in my foot ‘erupting’ from 0230 in the morning, the sheer delight of having a steroid injection directly into them woke me up though.

14 July 2010 Still a good set of waders around the WWT scrapes and Whimbrel on the estuary. A or the Grasshopper Warbler I had yesterday was reeling at Middle Point.

Ruff two males moulting out of breeding plumage. One of these individuals returns to moult here every year for the last 4/5 years. Also a Redshank in the same image, a juvenile was present at the South Lake this afternoon.

13 July 2010 Best birds logged for me were two Ruff, two Greenshank, 2 Whimbrel, 2 Common Sandpiper, 44 Black-tailed Godwit and a reeling Grasshopper Warbler.

12 July 2010 Highlight of the day was my first Emerald Damselfly for the reserve, possibly a first site record? This was a female.

11 July 2010 A good selection of waders around the WWT scrapes and a decent set of dragonflies seen on the safaris including 2 Scarce Chasers.

10 July 2010 A day at the cricket watching England v Bangladesh. A Common Blue Damselfly landed on my Harriet’s hand whilst watching the game.

Yardy bowls, Anderson fields..

Three ex-England captains…

9 July 2010  A White-tailed Lapwing turned up at WWT Slimbridge, I was called by Dave Paynter to say a visitor had got some video (Mr Giles Diggle) of this bird but when he looked for it had gone from the scrape. Dave was busy with a safari for the Slimbridge school group so I went in to try to relocate it along with Rich Hearn who was looking at South Lake, I  checked all the possible areas and eventually found it on the Top New Piece. The school kids all added this bird to their lifelists and were impressed. This constitutes a first for Gloucestershire and Slimbridge. These images are affected by heat haze and looking through vegetation.

White-tailed Lapwing

 

8 July 2010 A full day out with JJS in Berkshire and Surrey looking for dragonflies and butterflies. We had a good time of it with 7 Downy Emeralds, Golden ringed, Emperor, Black-tailed Skimmer, Broad bodied Chaser, Keeled Skimmer, Black, Ruddy and Common Darters, Brown Hawker and Emerald, Common Blue, Azure and Large Red Damselflies.

Downy Emerald, Paice’s Wood, Berkshire.

Keeled Skimmer, male.

6-7 July 2010 Up to 15 Green Sandpipers at WWT.

5 July 2010 Back at WWT Slimbridge..more arrivals of post breeding waders, pick was a juvenile Little-ringed Plover on South Lake.

2-4 July 2010 Got back from Madeira at 0100 and was up for 0545 for a trip to Pembrokeshire and Skomer Island, the trip report and images on the trip report page.

1 July 2010 My last day in Madeira was spent aboard the Ventura do Mar, we had a brilliant pelagic, probably the best I have ever been on! Trip report and images on the relevant page.