I was out with Roger today and
we visited a new site for ourselves at Lockington Gravel Pits. There was an area that had been filled in and
a large area water had formed that had several good muddy areas.
When we arrived we found a
Ruff almost instantly and it wasn’t long before we had added Oystercatcher;
Little Ringed Plover; Ringed Plover; Green Sandpiper and Redshank. There was also a couple of Shelduck, Gadwall,
Teal and a few Shoveler present. As we
continued to scan I found a Dunlin and then two Snipe but Roger found the best
bird, a Sandwich Tern. As I moved my
position to see it he announced that there were two other terns present, which
were also Sandwich Tern. After watching
them for a few minutes all of the Black-headed Gulls they were with rose and
flew around and we didn’t see the terns again.
We had also seen a couple of Sand Martins and as we continued to scan
found single Yellow and White Wagtails.
It had been a interesting
first visit thirty-eight species recorded including a good county record of
three Sandwich Terns.
From Lockington we drove the
fairly short distance to the LRWT reserve at Dimminsdale near Staunton Harold
Reservoir. When we parked in the car
park there was some light rain and it was quite misty. After the rain stopped we walked the short
distance to the reserve entrance a completed a circuit of the footpath. It was very quiet although we did have two
Chiffchaff near the entrance and Green Woodpecker was calling constantly but
other than Jay we saw very little else.
As we walked back across the bridge over the reservoir inlet two Swallow
flew over and we eventually had four and a single Sand Martin. Another Chiffchaff was observed as we walked
back to the car.
We decided to go to Swithland
Reservoir for lunch and after stopping briefly at the southern end with only a
Great Spotted Woodpecker of interest we went to the dam in the north section of
the reserve. Again there appeared to be
very little but I picked up a few hurundine flying low over the water. They continued to come towards us before
rising and flying off high over the dam.
There were seven Swallow and we had two lots of two do exactly the
same. As we were about to move to
Barrow-upon-Soar one of the Peregrine flew over and a Green Woodpecker called.
WE went to the sewage works at
Barrow as there had been a Siberian Chiffchaff present for some time that
neither of us had seen. When we arrived
we immediately saw a Chiffchaff, which was clearly just a Chiffchaff but brief
views of a second individual looked more interesting. We had several other brief views before it
finally gave itself up and provided some nice views. The other Chiffchaff began singing but the
Siberian unfortunately remained silent.
Whilst we were searching for the bird we had a distant Buzzard, a couple
of Swallow pass over and three Grey Wagtail.
It had been a good day out
with three new sites visited, Lockington Gravel Pits, Dimminsdale and Barrow
sewage works. We had recorded sixty-nine
species and three new birds for the year.
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