Sutton Bingham - Sat 4 Sep

A nice fall of fourteen Yellow Wagtails in a private area of the reservoir this morning but other than that just a couple of Common Sandpipers and a rather obliging Lesser Whitethroat were seen.

Sutton Bingham - Fri 3 Sep

Early morning on patch and another (or possibly last night's) Whinchat was present.

Other than that it was fairly quiet with three Common Sandpipers and a group of nine Mistle Thrushes. A Kingfisher was, rather aptly, by the Fishing Lodge.

A quick lunchtime trip and two Little Grebes and a Shoveler were present at the southern end.

Finally, a patch year tick during a stop on the way home from an evening out as at least two Tawny Owls were calling by Bingham Bower Farm.

Sutton Bingham year list for 2021 now at 106 species.

Sutton Bingham - Thu 2 Sep

Another pre-work visit to the reservoir this morning and the field south of West Pool held ten Mistle Thrushes and a brief Wheatear which flew from the field, over West Pool and was lost to view. Three Common Sandpipers were present and there were also singles of Teal, Kingfisher and Mandarin. A return visit on the way home from work produced a Whinchat.

Sutton Bingham - Wed 1 Sep

August finished with very little on the bird front, just a couple of Common Sandpipers plus a Peregrine and a lone Mandarin seen in the final couple of days of the month.
September, however, started pretty well as I made a very brief stop on the way to work and found two Whinchats on the fence line south of West Pool, an area they really do seem to favour. As always a little distant, but I had to grab a record shot anyway.

As I started to head off I saw a bird drop on to the northern causeway and a fine Wheatear was on show.

So nothing new for the year list but a nice little haul before the day started.

Sutton Bingham - Sat 28 Aug

I arrived on patch just after 6.00am today in the hope of finding something before any disturbance, and pretty much all I found was fog! A single Common Sandpiper was on the northern causeway and a Yellow Wagtail flew over. A quick visit to the north-east corner then produced three more Yellow Wagtails but with no sign of the fog clearing it was back home for breakfast.

A return visit in the afternoon did produce six Shoveler at the southern end.

Sutton Bingham - Fri 27 Aug

A quick stop on the way to work produced a Wheatear on the fence line south of West Pool, but not a lot else so I popped down to the Canoe Club where I drew another blank.

As I drove back north Pete Akers, who I had pointed the Wheatear out to earlier, waved me down as he had located a Whinchat on the same fence line! Where had that been five minutes earlier?

A return visit later in the day failed to produce any chats, but a Snipe was on the northern causeway.

So a wader finally stayed long enough for me to see it, shame it wasn't a new bird for the year, however, the Whinchat earlier in the day sure was.

Sutton Bingham year list for 2021 now at 105 species.

Sutton Bingham - Mon 23 Aug

An afternoon visit did produce a couple of decent birds, most noticeably a couple of Yellow Wagtails in the north-east corner.

A single Common Sandpiper was in the same area as the Yellow Wagtails, whilst at the southern end there were three Gadwall present.

The only other bird of note was a single Teal that flew south with a Mallard.

However, it was yet more disappointment today as I missed another fly-through bird, there seem to have been so many this year, this time a Ringed Plover. This means I have now missed a dozen species at the reservoir this year.