Strange light this p.m. during the thunderstorm putting everything in silhouette
so went the whole hog and put them in black and white.
Ideal reservoir conditions today for bringing on the birds with a morning of full cloud on a SW>4 at 12 degrees and heavy showers by 0900 hrs with threatening black clouds.
By late afternoon it was sunshine and showers on a SW>3. The showers were torrential with a few flashes of lightening and cracks of thunder.
Just time to walk the full length of the west bank early doors but scurried back a bit quicker as the black storm clouds moved in. The west bank with an aluminium tripod on your back is no place to be in an electric storm. Back at the boatyard just in time before the rain came so I could stand under the tailgate and watch over the water. Luckily the storm held off until the afternoon visit.
The skies were alive with a 5 raptor species count , probably due to a big build up of post breeding Meadow Pipits and Linnets, plus a continuous flow of Swifts direct and >S in migration mode.
The largest Swift count so far this year as well as BH and LBB gulls moving. Ideal for Terns but not to be today.
Ravens are slowly returning to the area after a post breeding absence whilst the juv Pied Wagtail was feeding on the slipway.
It looks like bad news on the Ringed Plover pair that have been with me since the last day in February . Their first brood of at least one chick survived 4 days whilst both the chicks from the second brood are now missing, one lasting 3 days and the other 5 days with no sightings over the last 2 days and confirmed now with the adults moved on . The pair that raised 2 last year were much better parents always sticking with the chicks right up to fledging and getting them under cover at the first signs of a threat, whereas this years pair left the chicks out in the open, flying some distance away to feed. With all the Crows and raptors about at the moment it was inevitable what was going to happen.
The area is now void of any waders for the moment.
Fly Flatts
2 juv Merlin
2 Buzzard
4 Kestrel
1 Sparrowhawk
1 juv Peregrine
2 Raven
1 juv Pied Wagtail
70 LBB gull..............>NE
31 BH gull...............>NE
123 Swift.................>S
+ usual sp.
BS