Nethergong Birding

A couple more visits over the past few days where I have spent around four hours from 05:30 wandering around the whole area and checking the fields for migrants. Birds of note on Friday included 4 Turtle Dove with three seen together in flight. I only had brief views but suspected that one at least may have been a juvenile as they appeared from where I think they may be breeding. There were 2 Common Snipe and I was pleased to pick out a Black tailed Godwit (120) flying high towards Grove Ferry. This is a new bird for the site. Better was to come when later I picked out a flock of waders flying along Island Road which turned out to be 11 Black tailed Godwit. They were watched well in flight before flying off north and lost to view. Also seen were 426 Herring Gull west, 1 Grey Partridge heard, 2 Marsh Harrier, 2 Raven, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Common Buzzard, 1 Kingfisher, 3 Kestrel, 1 Hobby, 1 Chiffchaff, 6 Blackcap, 1 Sedge Warbler, 2 Reed Warbler, 4 Whitethroat, 1 Treecreeper, 2 Greenfinch and14 Yellowhammer together. A visit this morning (Sunday) produced 1 juvenile Turtle Dove which is fantastic news and provides the perfect evidence that they have bred successfully.

Juvenile Turtle Dove 

There were Greylag Geese heard, 1 Golden Plover north, 13 Lapwing south, 1 juvenile Mediterranean Gull west, 3 Marsh Harrier, 1 Kingfisher, 1 Kestrel, 1 Hobby, 1 Sand Martin, 2 Swallow, 6 House Martin, 3 Chiffchaff, 6 Blackcap, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 4 Whitethroat, 1 Whinchat, 3 Yellowhammer and 1 Yellow Wagtail. Probably the find of the morning was a Common Redstart (121) which after a while showed well at a distance, flying down onto the ground to catch insects before perching back up. This is only the second record of this species in six years here. Despite the distance I took a few record shots for the memory. This total equals my best ever number of species seen here set in 2021 and with autumn and winter to go, I'm hopeful of a couple more at least. 'Nocmig' recording last night was very frustrating with a Flycatcher species (Spotted or Pied) heard but with the calls so similar and the sonogram not the clearest, I can't be certain which one it was. 

Common Redstart