I spent some time tramping around most areas of the patch, ever hopeful of picking up an interesting migrant, but alas not today. I returned to the lake in the early afternoon and sat on the western bench, again hoping that something might fly in or over. It had got quite warm by this stage, so I knew Hobby ought to be seen. It's quite late in the month not to have had one yet, but sure enough, at 2pm I saw one fly in from the south. When it was over the lake, it started circling and then gradually drifted off west over my head - it's always great to see these lovely falcons back in the skies. At 2:40pm, I saw another Hobby flying quite high over to the north - and that was my main bit of movement for the day.
Garden Warblers seem to like the habitat around the lake. Today there were 4 birds singing away, 2 on the south side by the railway and 2 around the northern cut. A Reed Warbler was back in the small stand of reeds on the southern bank and the bird at the base of the spit is still chuntering away. Common Terns seem to have plateaued for the time being - my best count today of 24 birds was the same as the last couple of days. 2 LRPs were the only waders on site (apart from a couple of Lapwing) and on the wildfowl front, 6 Shelduck and a single male Shoveler were the birds of note. The Teal seem to have moved on in the last few days. A single Swift and a few Swallows and House Martins were also seen.
In the vine fields at Pump Lane, no migrant chats or Wheatears, but it was nice to see Linnets and Skylarks singing away. I took this shot of a Skylark using one of the many metal posts as a song post - unfortunately there are always a million and one wires between me and the bird!
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