Sutton Bingham - Thu 31 Jul

After a few flying visits over the past week or so, which yielded very little other than a few Common Sandpipers passing through (a maximum count of eight on 29 July) and the odd female-type Mandarin.
Today I had some time to invest at the reservoir and started off at the Northern Causeway where the sallows in the corner of West Pool held a Sedge Warbler, I presume this was a passage bird as I've not seen or heard any Sedge Warblers at Sutton Bingham for the duration of the summer. At least one Lesser Whitethroat was also skulking in this area. A single Little Egret was near the Sailing Club.
A quick look around the church failed to produce anything, though a pair of Swallows have successfully raised young.
I then spent about ninety minutes walking around the southern end of the reservoir. Warblers were pretty plentiful, with a good number of Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs, including several young birds. I also located a single Reed Warbler, again I have no idea whether this species successfully bred at Sutton Bingham this year, I somehow doubt it due to the lack of singing birds since mid-May. I was also pleased to see a couple of juvenile Willow Warblers, I had only heard one singing Willow Warbler on patch all year. A couple of Kingfishers whizzed over the path right in front of me at Cotton Bridge and a pair of Raven drifted overhead.
It was a brilliant morning for butterflies, with thirteen species being seen. The highlight of which were two, possibly three, Clouded Yellows. I also saw Ringlet, Gatekeeper, Small Skipper, Common Blue, Comma and Common Blue amongst others. There were also several different dragonflies and damselflies about, I failed on identification for nearly all but I'm pretty sure one of the larger dragonflies was a Migrant Hawker...must try harder with odonata, or get an ID guide!

Sutton Bingham - Tue 22 Jul

Not much chance recently to get out and about due to various reasons, none of which I will bore you with. The few flying visits I have made to Sutton Bingham over the past couple of weeks have failed to produce much other than Common Sandpipers! A quick visit in the morning produced three juvenile type Mandarin on West Pool and an adult Peregrine on a pylon at the southern end.
However, this afternoon whilst scanning through the four hundred plus large gulls gathered I came across a Great Black-backed Gull, this bird was moulting to second winter plumage and was a beast of a gull...a really nice bird and by no means an annual visitor to the reservoir. The following photos show the size of this bird compared to a Mallard and a Black-headed Gull....what a monster!

 

 

The only other bird of note today was a Little Egret.
Sutton Bingham year list for 2014 now at 95 species.

Sutton Bingham - Mon 7 Jul

After a clear night I figured I had very little chance of seeing yesterdays waders, and indeed there was nothing other than a couple of Common Sandpipers this morning perched on one of the pontoons off the Sailing Club. However, what I did find was a real surprise...two Common Scoters off the northern causeway!

 

These are the first Common Scoter I've seen at Sutton Bingham for a number of years and were a most unexpected sight this morning! With little time left to get to work before 8.00am I had to zoom off, but a great find and a brilliant addition to the SBR year list.

Sutton Bingham - Sun 6 Jul

A fairly brief visit late morning failed to produce much, though eight Common Sandpipers were on the southern causeway, so obviously some wader migration starting to take place. the only other bird of note I saw was a Kingfisher, again from the southern causeway.
Frustratingly, in the early evening I had a text to say a Redshank and a couple of Green Sandpipers had dropped in (there had been a very heavy thunderstorm mid afternoon), but as I was just finishing my second glass of wine I had no chance of driving over to see them!