Saturday 22nd March - The Sand Martins are here.

Quite a lot going on this week. I had a day off on Monday and helped the rangers install some artificial Tern nests on the main lake island. These consisted of some old tyres part filled with gravel. The Terns like a gravel base for their nests and the tyres give somewhere for the chicks to take shelter from both the weather and predators. Hopefully after the failed nests last year we might have some success this year when the Common Terns arrive. Let's hope they like our handy work.

The afternoon was spent planting up the hedge in the Sheep Pen and a few new trees to fill a few holes left after the removal of a few of the older trees. All in all a very satisfying day.

This week has also seen the arrival of the Sand Martins with DK reporting the first ones in the middle of the week and numbers building slowly from then. I arrived in the park early on Saturday morning and had a single Sand Martin in just after I arrived.

Record shot of my first Sand Martin this year

This was followed by groups of 33,7,5,6 and 4 all coming in from the north east, so probably a local roost over towards 100 Acre or Willington GP.

Another noticeable change has been the number of Chiffchaffs in the park. We have been fortunate to have them over wintering on the edge of the park but Saturday saw c20 in the park, a similar number to that recorded by DK on Friday morning. Many of these were found along the south side of the main lake with many none singing birds flitting around the scrub and tree tops. There are also plenty of singing Chiffies in the park, a sure sign that Spring has sprung.

While I was waiting for the groups of Sand Martins to come a cacophony of alarm calls alerted me to the presence of a Sparrowhawk and sure enough a scan of the sky picked up this female who flew into the tree next to me. She is a very different bird to the one we have been seeing regularly, the other being a much greyer bird also showing some pink flushing around the edge of the breast. We even thought the other was a male to start with, until the male arrived and they mated!

Female Sparrowhawk

As usual a wander over to 100 Acre was well worth the effort. The Black-winged Stilt was on the island. There were still a few Wigeon about but numbers a reducing now. Other highlights were the Oystercatchers, Redshanks, Buzzard and at least 3 Ringed Plovers on the Castle Mill earth Works.

Two Ringed Plovers

Ringed Plover

On Sunday TP reported a male Blackcap singing and showing well in scrub by the gap in the Long Hedge, close to the ringing area in 'The Rough'. The first one this year.

CS had 2 Shelduck on Castle Mill, viewed from the earthworks on the east side of 100 Acre.

Good Friday, not so bad Saturday!

Met up with DK at the park on a cold Good Friday morning (-1°C). Willow Warblers are fresh in this week and it didn't take long for me to get my first of the year down by the Rough. They are not all singing strongly yet but you are almost certain to find one around Fingers. Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs are also pretty abundant in the park although the peak counts of last week have declined a little showing that some of the birds were just passing through. 6 Gadwalls and a couple of Teal were on west Fingers.

Having already seen TP once we met up again by the Woodland Walk, he'd already been up at the STW Bridge and had seen a Sedge Warbler, the first of the year. I headed up there with DK and it wasn't long before we heard the song and tracked the bird down to the west side of the river, north of the bridge on Riverside. We crossed the New Cut and went down to the river to get a little closer. Again we soon picked up the song but the bird was staying down in the bottom of the reeds and was hard to see but our patience was rewarded as DK spotted the bird move and then we had decent views for a few minutes.

There were also 40+ Sand Martins further along the river and we noticed that many of them were perching up on the overhead lines so we walked over to see if we could get some shots. Unfortunately most of them were facing away from the rising sun so lighting wasn't ideal but I managed to get this shot as one flew in to perch up. From the other side of the river a little later, DK spotted a single House Martin in the mix.

Sand Martin

Back up at the STW bridge there was another Teal on the back river. We cut down the track to the east side of the river and followed the trail along the river. We failed to locate any more Sedge Warblers but there were plenty more Chiffies and Blackcaps all along the west side of the river. A party of 8 Lesser Black-backed Gulls spent over an hour, at least, circling over the island on the 100 Acre big lake.

Lesser Black-Backed Gull

We failed to find the hoped for Wheatear as we covered most of 100 Acre but Redshanks were heard and seen around the big lake and DK picked up a Ringed Plover as it passed over. A Snipe was also seen over the big lake and it came to rest back on the island. A Reed Bunting gave good views along the east side of the big lake.

Reed Bunting

Cutting back across the 100 Acre to the main path I spotted a Common Buzzard over the STW and it obliged by flying directly over our heads.

Common Buzzard

I looked down for a moment and next minute there were a further 2 Buzzards overhead with some lovely interaction between the three and even one of the LBB Gulls got in on the act.

Common Buzzards and LBB Gull

Common Buzzards

Back in the park we had 2 Jays and a further 4 Common Buzzards (2,1 and 1). We also had a possible second Sedge Warbler, I picked it up on a snatch of song near Wolk Holm as we stood at the south side of the main lake. This proved to be a very frustrating bird as it continuously started to sing, just 2 or 3 phrases, but never got into it's stride. We tracked it down to a thick piece of scrub and despite hanging around for half an hour we never did see the bird so it remain a mystery. We did get a Kingfisher while we waited and as we crossed the Cardington Spillway and turned into Press Mead a Goldcrest flitted across in front of us and showed well in a nearby Willow.

Numbers for the morning as follows (thanks to DK):

100 Acre Mute Swan 7 Canada Goose 15 Teal 2 Pochard 1 Pheasant 1 Great Crested Grebe 2 Little Egret 1 Kestrel 1 Coot 3 Lapwing 2 Redshank 3 Common Gull 4 Stock Dove 1 Green Woodpecker 2 Skylark 14 House Martin 1 Pied Wagtail (yarrellii) 1 Dunnock 2 Blackbird 2 Song Thrush 1 Chiffchaff 2 Blue Tit 1 Jackdaw 1 Starling 9 Reed Bunting 5 Greylag Goose 13 Gadwall 3 Mallard 4 Tufted Duck 26 Little Grebe 7 Cormorant 4 Buzzard 3 Moorhen 1 Ringed Plover 1 Snipe 3 Black-headed Gull 35 Lesser Black-backed Gull 8 Woodpigeon 5 Great Spotted Woodpecker 1 Sand Martin 38 Meadow Pipit 2 Wren 1 Robin 1 Fieldfare 7 Blackcap 2 Willow Warbler 1 Magpie 2 Carrion Crow 16 Greenfinch 1 Total number of species 49

Priory Country Park Mute Swan 8 Canada Goose 19 Teal 3 Tufted Duck 2 Cormorant 3 Grey Heron 2 Moorhen 2 Oystercatcher 1 Common Gull 1 Herring Gull 1 Stock Dove 2 Collared Dove 3 Green Woodpecker 1 Meadow Pipit 1 Dunnock 9 Blackbird 13 Sedge Warbler 1 Chiffchaff 19 Goldcrest 1 Blue Tit 9 Treecreeper 1 Magpie 7 Rook 6 Starling 2 Greenfinch 1 Bullfinch 2 Greylag Goose 2 Gadwall 5 Mallard 47 Great Crested Grebe 14 Little Egret 1 Buzzard 7 Coot 24 Black-headed Gull 2 Lesser Black-backed Gull 8 Feral Pigeon 5 Woodpigeon 19 Kingfisher 2 Sand Martin 38 Wren 8 Robin 8 Song Thrush 4 Blackcap 20 Willow Warbler 3 Long-tailed Tit 3 Great Tit 7 Jay 2 Jackdaw 1 Carrion Crow 8 Chaffinch 13 Goldfinch 2 Reed Bunting 1 Total number of species 52

Saturday dawned overcast and drizzly but surprisingly no Hirundines over the main lake first thing. ONce again I joined DK by the main lake and Willow Warbler, Blackcap and Chiffchaff were all heard/seen by the time we met up with EG, who was ringing in the Crescent. JA joined us shortly after. There were 2 Little Egrets on the fallen Willow at the north end of west Fingers, 4 Gadwalls were also present. Heading back to the Steps, along the main path, and DK spotted a Herring Gull accompanied by 2 Kittiwakes over the main lake. I managed to get a shot of one of the Kittiwakes as both departed north east shortly after. Great spot by DK.

Kittiwake

Around the back of Fingers there was a pair of Teal by the Sedgewick Seat. Up at the STW bridge we could not find any Sedge Warblers today but there were ~40 Sand Martins over the big lake on 100 Acre. JA spotted a Swallow over 100 Acre which I relocated as it flew up river and past us over the bridge. There were 2 Oystercatchers on 100 Acre. A walk up to Meadow Lane GP added a few Skylarks, 4 Fieldfares, 5 Redwings and a single Lapwing in the crop field.

Back in the park, DK had a message from EG, that 4 Sand Martins had passed over. Just as we reached EG back at the Crescent, at least another 10 passed over north.

That was it as far as note worthy birds was concerned. Continuing around the main lake we had several more Chiffies, Blackcaps and Willow Warblers. A stop a the mystery bird location from yesterday failed to add anything to the mystery but the Goldcrest flitted across in front of us again as we rounded the same corner into Press Mead. The Priory Rookery remains at 3 nests although there were 8 birds today and the thin nest at the back was being added to.

Two great mornings to kick off the Easter bank holiday weekend and up to 88 species for the year so far.