Excuse poor pics in a mashing of heat shudder.
Terrible conditions at Fly Flatts this morning with dead calm and already 19 degrees at 0745 hrs with 80% cloud and some sun. Very still ,hot and sticky with fog once again down in the valleys.
Unbelievably quiet first thing with 2 Raven and a few Mipits but come 0900 hrs as the flies started to get mobile I started getting a few small migrants in the compound bushes and then the flood gates opened.
Meadow Pipits were piling over >S whilst scores of them dropped down into, and around, the compound. Mixed in with them were Wheatear, Whinchat, Stonechat, Spotted Flycatcher, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff and Reed Bunting all moving around the compound frantically feeding.
Nothing on the water other than the single female Tufted duck which has been present for week now and keeps making me think its a Common Scoter as its always on its own and in the centre of the water.
Nothing else that I could see moving skyward but with my head in the bushes all morning a flock of Osprey could have gone over unseen.
Fly Flatts
5 Wheatear
2 Willow Warblers
1 Chiffchaff
1 Spotted Flycatcher
13 Stonechat
3 Reed Bunting
4 Whinchat
sev Mipits
2 Raven.
Just as I thought it was all over, I got a text from NK who had found 4 Wigeon on Ogden so, as I was about to take the dogs a walk anyway, I bundled them into the car and headed for Ogden.
A walk on the east bank found the 4 Wigeon, along with 2 Teal, at the north end but well across the water and the glare of the sun off the water. September is always a good month for Wigeon with several groups visiting Fly Flatts in previous years. One was reported on Redcar Tarn a few days ago by birder Dev.
Thanks for the Ogden call Nigel, a good find.
BS