29th Apr to 1st May 2017

What a weekend! This was one of those weekends when (unless you had other more important things to be doing) you really should have been out out birding. As always, Grimsbury was frustratingly quiet at times when other sites appeared to be bursting with birds, but we did manage a few goodies including four new species for the year list.

Saturday was rather quiet and I didn't log anything of note except for a small arrival including a Willow Warbler, Garden Warblers and both Whitethroat species.

However, Sunday was far from quiet. John started out early (earlier than I could bring myself to manage) and he was rewarded with five Arctic Terns that flew through south without lingering. He also saw a Swift go through north and two Little Egrets that flew south west and had a Common Sandpiper and two Little Ringed Plovers at the reservoir. I joined him after this early morning burst of activity, but we still managed to see a Hobby and two Common Terns go through north and another Little Egret go south west. At the Borrow Pit there was a Wheatear and a very smart male Whinchat. Colin confirmed later there was a second Whinchat. Other birds included a Reed Warbler, at least three Garden Warblers and Peregrine.
After going off to larger midlands reservoirs to see far more terns inland than either of us had ever seen, we returned to Grimsbury late evening. It was rather quiet and after a short while I decided to leave. I left too early though and as soon as I was home John text to say five Black Terns had dropped in. They stayed for around ten minutes before leaving high to the east.

Some pictures of the birds from Sunday by Kyle here and here and by John here (including some from elsewhere).

Photos courtesy and copyright of JFT

 

This morning John and I met up just after 6am. We were, rather optimistically, hoping that the strong migration we witnessed yesterday would continue. We saw a Wheatear fairly early on and soon had two and then another single Common Tern through and a Whinchat appeared along the fence a little way from us. We were very hopeful of some (different and more interesting) waders or more terns, but they didn't arrive. Whilst waiting we saw a Peregrine again, a Red Kite, a Common Sandpiper, two Little Ringed Plovers and a few Yellow Wagtails, but that was about it. There were more new warblers with at least five Garden Warblers and noticeably more Sedge Warblers and there were two Common Sandpipers at the Borrow Pit.