Sutton Bingham - Fri 22 Jul

A pre-work visit this morning was rathe productive with several new birds on site, though nothing new for the year list. A lone Green Sandpiper was feeding at the back of West Pool and a total of ten Common Sandpipers were counted across the reservoir. A juvenile/female-type Mandarin was on the northern causeway before taking flight and a Lesser Whitethroat showed very nicely in the corner of West Pool.

The southern end failed to produce anything other than Common Sandpipers yet again but from the Fishing Lodge there were two Common Terns present.

Always nice to see terns at Sutton Bingham and these two showed extremely well which makes a change from the usual fairly distant flight views. Finally, a couple of Ravens were present, including one perched up in the trees behind the Fishing Lodge.

A return visit in the evening for a Wood Sandpiper that James had found, but despite being on site within ten minutes of his message there was only a guilty looking Red Fox and a Green Sandpiper, so I headed back home. However, within seconds of walking through the door another message saying a Great White Egret was present, so it was back to the reservoir again and this time I was successful.

So a bit of a rollercoaster hour going back and forth but at least there was some reward for it.

Sutton Bingham year list now at 104 species.