Thursday May 9 - ANOTHER RED LETTER DAY

It had rained for most of the day yesterday, and this morning began damp, drizzly, and with a hint of east in the breeze. Time to buy some new wellies.

After doing that I arrived at Netherstead and had a brief chat with one of the guys who feed the horses every morning. I told him what a great spring it had been, and that miserable weather often produced rare birds. I don't think even I believed it would happen at Morton Bagot though.

Anyway, at the reedbed there were numerous Sedge Warblers singing (five for the whole site), and I could hear my first Reed Warbler of the year.

Reed Warbler

Sedge Warbler

Typically the first Reed Warbler of the season was very hard to see let alone photograph, but the Sedge Warblers have abandoned their former reticence.

A little further on I flushed a Fallow Deer, and got a shot for the mammal year-list. At the former pool  a pair of Canada Geese was leading a creche of youngsters to the top ponds which remain full.

So I finally reached the point where I could scan the flash field. Initially all seemed quiet, there were at least three Little Ringed Plovers, a pair of Gadwall, a Black-headed Gull, and a pair of Shelducks. After about 30 minutes I decided to move on, but had only gone a few steps when I noticed a dove flying north. I got on what I expected to be a Collared Dove, and noticed it was a bit orangey brown. I stayed on it. A flick of its wing gave me a hint of black underwing, and just before it disappeared a second chance, definitely a black underwing. TURTLE DOVE. There was no chance of a photo because I had to be sure what it was.

Some context. The last Turtle Dove here was on 26 April 2008, and I didn't see it. After Jonathan Bowley's sighting I waited year after year as the species got rarer and rarer. It is now almost lost to the county and I thought my chance had gone. So I was just a bit PLEASED.

Once it had gone I resumed my walk, but soon heard a "chooee" call. Surely a Ringed Plover. I hurried back to the viewing spot and sure enough, a Ringed Plover had dropped in.

Ringed Plover

Well I was as pleased as punch, Ringed Plover cannot be guaranteed to occur in any given year. I had barely finished congratulating myself on my good fortune when things got even better. A flurry of wings over the nearest flash, and I realised there were terns there. What's more they were BLACK TERNS. There were two of them, the first for the site. I desperately tried to photograph them for the record, they were only present for about a minute but as they headed north-east I managed to record them for posterity.

Black Terns

The only other species of tern that has been seen here is Common Tern, and there have only been three of them. Despite this, I have always had a sneaking hope that the little pools here might be large enough to tempt one of these beauties to take a look.

Around this time the number of Swallows and House Martins seemed to increase, and I scanned them enthusiastically for a Red-rumped Swallow...or a Sand Martin, or even a Swift. One thing that did drop in was a Little Egret, the first for over a month.

House Martins and Little Egret

At this point I realised I had omitted to top up my phone, so I was unable to call anyone. I did however manage to flag Mike down as I drove off. He was on his way to Salford Priors GP and told me there was a Turnstone at Bittell, a Sanderling at Upton Warren, and goodness knows what else at other sites.

Gloomy weather really does produce the goods.

But not always for moths. I put the trap out in the garden last night, but it poured down for an hour after dusk and the temperature never peaked over six degrees C. As a result i caught just two moths; an Early Grey and a Shuttle-shaped Dart.

Early Grey

At least the Early Grey was new for the year. I also caught a Common Wasp and a caddis-fly sp.