An early start this morning and a little over two hours on site before breakfast. As it happens this was a good move with some decent birds around despite the clear skies overnight. I started off near the Fishing Lodge where a scan over the reservoir and adjacent fields produced my first patch Swifts of the year.
A brief stop at the Water Treatment Works and outflow stream was hardly worth it with a Grey Wagtail being the only bird of note.
Off then to the extreme southern end of the reservoir and the boundary of my Patchwork Challenge area. Again nothing out of the ordinary but then as I scanned the area back to the north and the reservoir proper a Hobby shot through causing a bit a panic amongst the local Woodpigeon population.
A walk along the water's edge failed to produce much but as I reached the Car Park a Greylag Goose flew in from the north and settled on the water, I wasn't expecting that! I retraced my steps back to the car and then drove up to the northern causeway and parked up for a while. Three Common Sandpipers were about and a small flock of seven Tufted Duck were new arrivals. As I scanned the gulls that had started to drop in to the reservoir I suddenly came across a small wader whizzing by, fortunately I was able to see the bird pretty well as it continued south and the nice black belly showed this to be a breeding plumaged Dunlin! This rounded off a brilliant start to the day, four new ticks for the patch list.
Sutton Bingham year list for 2014 now at 92 species.
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