Western Osprey
Garganey
Garganey
The pond held few birds, excepting the Garganey, although the Western Great Egret was still present. I had a quick look at the wet pools where the crakes had been seen yesterday and saw three Little Crakes and two Spotted Crakes in the same place as the day before. A green Sandpiper was present on its favourite pool and allowed closer than normal approach alongside two Bluethroats. The flock of Red-rumped Swallows and Pallid Swift were still present as was a single Barn Swallow, but numbers had dropped from the day before to about 25+ of each species.
Green Sandpiper
I had arranged to meet Phil at the spray fields to try to locate the Corn Buntings that I had seen a week or so before. On the way there I saw a male Daurian Shrike sitting on top of a bush and four Tawny Pipits in the desert area. A walk through the spray fields did not turn up any Corn Buntings but we did see a flock of 25+ Yellow-wagtails flying over including a number of Black-headed Wagtails and flushed four Common Quail as well as hearing a couple of other birds calling from the long grass. Four Skylarks were still present as were a number of Stonechats of different sub-species. A Caspian Stonechat (variegatus) was showing very well alongside the more usual Siberian Stonechat (maurus) and nearby was a European Stonechat (rubicola). A male, showing plumage characteristics of maurus but the tail pattern of variegatus was an odd bird and caused confusion – something to look into later when I have more time. Other good birds seen included at least two Woodchat Shrikes, six Song Thrushes, two Isabelline Wheatears and 30+ Water Pipits.
Daurian Shrike