A late afternoon visit to Raggalds Flood found the 2 Redshank still present along with a pair of Teal and a pair of Mallard. Hopefully this spot will attract more waders before the water dries up.
Up on Soil Hill in conditions I class as the worst next to fog, that is the dreaded hot stuff. Bright sunshine with poor sky visibility due to heat haze with a light SW>3 on the summit but dead calm down at the bottom.
Bird wise it was much the same as yesterday with 3 Redshank, 2 Oystercatchers,
3 Curlew, 4 Snipe and 1 f Teal on the pond.
Back home for a bit of tea then off with the dogs to Ogden thinking it would be quiet at 1700 hrs, wrong. The place was worse than Blackpool front on a Wakes weekend with drones buzzing over the moor above the car parks, camp fires and barbecue's all around the duck feeding area, radios blasting and dogs swimming in the water, I love this weather.
What baffles me is , where are all these nuggets throughout the year, do they only come out when the sun shines.
Anyway, a quick walk on to passerine alley got me my first singing Willow Warbler which was a very bright bird standing out like a Wood Warbler. With hoards of people heading for me from both directions I skipped the photos and, like the bird , got the heck out of there.
Back home and just starting to do the blog when a phone call from JL reporting a Black Redstart at the top of Ned Hill so it was drop everything and get up there sharpish. John had got some good photos of the bird but it had since moved lower down the field and not showing. Mipits were distracting whilst scanning the walls but no sign of the Blackred.
Well down the bottom of the field and in the sun a likely looking candidate stood on the wall so a few quick shots then a dash back to the car for the scope but seconds before I got set up it went again. A bit of a disappointment to say the least when I put the shots on computer to expose a Mipit, so that will go down as another dip unless it re appears again tomorrow.
Well spotted to JL for his second local Black Redstart.
BS