Some nice year ticks were available so as it was quite a pleasant day I made the trip up the M3/M25.
The most obvious was the number of Little Gulls (83) which were all adults/near-adults except 1 first summer. Quite a few of them were sitting on the water although they would occasionally take off and fly around on rounded wings with obvious dark under the wing.
Carefully scanning eventually revealed the presence of the Great Northern Diver (84). As it was so distant it was difficult to tell whether it was a juvenile or an adult still in winter plumage.
Mainly in the SW corner were a lot of terns some of which were sitting on the reservoir. The majority were Common Terns, but careful scanning resulted in at least one Arctic Tern (85) amongst them. Eventually, I chanced upon the Black Tern (86) that had been reported. Unusually all the time I was there, all it did was sit on the water.
Unusually for this site there were no hirundines or Swifts even though there were clouds of horrible black flies all along the causeway.
Other year ticks:
Pied Wagtail (87)
The most obvious was the number of Little Gulls (83) which were all adults/near-adults except 1 first summer. Quite a few of them were sitting on the water although they would occasionally take off and fly around on rounded wings with obvious dark under the wing.
Carefully scanning eventually revealed the presence of the Great Northern Diver (84). As it was so distant it was difficult to tell whether it was a juvenile or an adult still in winter plumage.
Mainly in the SW corner were a lot of terns some of which were sitting on the reservoir. The majority were Common Terns, but careful scanning resulted in at least one Arctic Tern (85) amongst them. Eventually, I chanced upon the Black Tern (86) that had been reported. Unusually all the time I was there, all it did was sit on the water.
Unusually for this site there were no hirundines or Swifts even though there were clouds of horrible black flies all along the causeway.
Other year ticks:
Pied Wagtail (87)
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