In strictly chronological order I will deal with this morning's visit to Morton Bagot first. I slipped out early, and it turned out to be time well spent. The Cetti's Warbler was singing again, but I was stunned to discover a male Stonechat as I walked back to the car. There have been no sightings since April 5, and I can't think we've overlooked such an obvious species since then. So what was it doing here in early June? I did photograph it before it disappeared, but the shot is a bit of a shocker so I'll see if its still there tomorrow. Oh what the heck (it wasn't seen next day).
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| Stonechat |
At about the same time the first Sand Martin here this year showed very well, but eluded the camera. Some House Martins were more co-operative as they gathered mud for their nest.
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| House Martins |
This afternoon I was back out again, this time to Earlswood.
Sometimes local places have a purple patch. This year Earlswood is excelling itself. This time John Oates was the finder, and the bird I needed to see was a Little Tern.
I arrived within fifteen minutes of its discovery, and thankfully it was still there. The last one was in 2012, and more typically it had been in and out.
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| Little Tern with Common Tern |
Perhaps the shingle spit, no longer an island, off the causeway encouraged it to stick. It's a tiny little tern compared to a Common Tern, and much less regular in the Midlands than it used to be due to a national decline.
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| Little Tern towered over by Black-headed Gulls |
As with the Spoonbill a couple of days ago it caused a mini-twitch for the local birding group.
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| Some very happy birders |
Perhaps June isn't such a bad month for birding.
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