Birding the patch over the last few days has produced a few interesting birds with the spray fields having the first returning Siberian Stonechats of the autumn and a female Pied Wheatear was seen in the nearby scrub. A really good flock of waders was on the settling pond with 35 Wood Sandpipers, four Green Sandpipers, two Common Redshanks, four Dunlins, four black-winged Stilts, 21 Little Stints, nine Common Snipes and a Common Sandpiper. The Wood Sandpipers were very flighty and did not remain very long before flying off and not landing again as far as I could tell. There were plenty of White Wagtails are around the edge of the settling pond as normal. The percolation pond had 22 Eurasian Coots which is a high number for the site, seven Mallards (four adult males and three females), seven Eurasian Teals and the Great Crested Grebe is still present. Three Barn Swallow flew over the pond and 31 Western Cattle Egrets flew in to roost in the late evening. An adult Greater Spotted Eagle was in the trees surrounding the percolation pond in the early morning and was on one of the jebals yesterday evening.
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| Siberian Stonechat |
