Brambling gone
in poor shape.
Started the long hike up to Ringby Top at 1600 hrs in bright but breezy conditions with a W>5 blowing on the summit. I was on 2nd shift today with DJS just on his way down as I was going up so after a few words we set off in our opposite directions.
Things were quiet on the top with the usual sky full of corvids whilst several Herring and LBB gull headed >W with 4 LBB gulls present throughout .
A check of the Yellow Wagtail field found it now over grown but the next field on looked promising and worth keeping an eye on. Today it held 4 Wheatear and several Mipits.
Luckily a check in the quarry saved the afternoon with a count of 7 more Wheatear and a small flock of 5 Linnet. A male Blackbird gave me the run around thinking Ring Ouzel until it finally showed itself fully to dash my hopes.
On the way home 2 more Wheatear were spotted in Taylor Lane and 3 at the bottom of Perseverance Road near to the YW building.
So finally things are buzzing with a count of :-
15 Common Sandpiper this weekend and 38 Wheatear.
A text this morning from the Angela/Gary team reported a single Swift over Pickering. My earliest sighting of Swift is 30/04/ 2012 over Queensbury thought AC had one on the 26/04/2012 at Cold Edge Dams.
BS