Some early autumn birding at the flash

Things are starting to get a bit more interesting at the flash, the occasional drake common scoter has been turning up and there are a couple of common sandpipers knocking about and two common terns, but the highlight of the week so far was this juvenile yellow wagtail at the sailing club on Monday. 

The 7 Egyptian geese are still present and there's a shoveler with 7 chicks in Ramdales. I can't remember the last time I saw this species with chicks at the flash. A water rail showed well briefly from Pengy's hide today and the usual late summer build up of juvenile lesser black-backs totalled 210 juveniles.

Regarding common terns, there's been a real lack of juveniles at the flash this year. In 14 visits during July I recorded a maximum of 9 juveniles, compared to a maximum of 42 juveniles in 26 visits in 2023. Also at the start of July a flock of 18 adults dropped in briefly before heading off south. These were presumably non-breeders.

The black-headed gulls on the car park include one with a white darvic ring J3260. This was ringed as a nestling in Norway east of Oslo on 11/06/2023 and was last recorded in Norway on 05/07/2024. A distance of 1083km (673 miles). 

Also my third record of a Finnish bird with a metal ring ST170.852. This bird was ringed as a nestling at Sipoo, Finland on 23/06/2020, a distance of 1657km (1030 miles). I've seen this bird twice before, 03/11/2022 and 25/09/2023. Finally the Dutch bird 3,738,977 which I have been seeing pretty regularly since November 2022. This bird was ringed as a nestling in May 2016 so is now just over 8 years old.