Another good early morning at the flash in poor weather. First off there was a juvenile arctic tern sitting on a rock at the far end of the spit. These are always a delight to see, being so much daintier and prettier than juvenile common terns. The bird stayed there for about 20 minutes before being disturbed by a clumsy passing cormorant, at which point it flew up high and headed south.
Then I turned my scope on the boat club. I didn't have time to head over there today but I wanted to check if the common sandpiper was still about and extending it's record late date at the flash. Sure enough I could see it bobbing around in amongst the coots and mute swans. It's now been present for five days.
Suddenly I saw a gull having a go at a falcon which turned out to be a hobby, amazingly my first at the flash this year, though they have been reported with some regularity by others. I mustn't have be paying attention. It was heading east and just shot through, over my head and gone, no doubt my last hobby of the year.
Not a great photo but I love the translucent primaries.
There's been a decent number of snipe hanging around the spit for a few days now, but usually most of them are only visible when they fly up for some reason. However today they showed nicely albeit a little distant. About 25 I estimated but it's hard to be sure. They kept popping up everywhere!
No comments:
Post a Comment