15th Apr 2016: Dunlin and Whitethroat

A very birdy day at Grimsbury today with our 100th and 101st species for the year recorded.

John and I were out in the morning, again hoping the weather would deliver us something good and for a change it actually did. John picked up a female Wheatear early on, stood out on the pontoon. Not long after that I had seen a Common Sandpiper and a Yellow Wagtail. While we were there a Dunlin dropped in and remained for the day. There were lot of hirundines around all day with a peak of c.200 in the evening, but it would be interesting to know how many passed through during the day. There also seemed to be a lot of warblers around.

Mark Ribbons visited mid morning and saw our first Common Whitethroat of the year and there was a second Wheatear. During John's lunch time visit a third Wheatear had joined the first two and Tim Clark had a Yellow Wagtail in the Upper Cherwell Valley and three Greylag Geese fly over mid afternoon.

Late afternoon John and Mike were out and had five Yellow Wagtails at the southern end of the reservoir and probably another two in the fields. It was then that John picked up another Redstart, perched on the railings by the pontoon with Swallows! It moved to the bushes on the western side but soon disappeared. A male Wheatear was still around and Yellow Wagtails were flying over and calling almost constantly. While I was with John we had a group of seven Yellow Wagtails fly over to the north and there was still at least one calling from the cattle field. We waited to see if any terns or more waders would drop in but they didn't materialise.