Passage trickles on

May 19th - the recent run of high pressure and sunny days, although great to be out in, hasn't helped to bring any interesting passage birds in.

This morning, I paid a quick visit before work.  The 2 black and white waders roosting on the sand spit weren't the over optimistically hoped for Black-winged Stilts, but a pair of Oystercatchers.  This pair have been here since the morning of the 17th and don't include the ringed bird that seemed to take up ownership a few weeks ago.  This morning I saw them mating, but I think any nesting attempt on this site would be doomed to failure with the number of predatory animals and birds present.  A single LRP plus the obligatory Lapwing made up the wader tally.  That was until 8:10am, when I was approaching the meadow, as I heard the familiar call of a Whimbrel.  Looking back up to the spit, I saw that 2 Whimbrel had just landed.  I walked back up the west side to get my customary record shot, made even more difficult as I was looking into the morning sun and then enjoyed watching the birds feeding.  They soon wandered into the vegetation, which is now high enough to almost cover these birds and often only there heads were visible when they looked up and they could completely disappear.  After about 30 minutes, they decided they'd had enough and took off calling loudly.  I watched them through my scope as they flew north over Emmett's fields until out of view.

Whilst this was going on, a couple of silent Cuckoos flew across the lake.  One of these was obviously a female, as shortly later I heard the 'bubbling' call.  I have seen 1 - 2 birds here a few times over the last few days, so hopefully the female will find somewhere to deposit her egg - there is 1 or maybe 2 paired Reed Warblers around at the moment, with a couple of other singing males, so you never know.  Much better than last year, when I only saw 1 silent Cuckoo all year.

A few other snippets, a Common Sand has been present over the last 3 days - I didn't see it today, but it is often on the east side of the spit, which I didn't have time to look at this morning.  Shelduck numbers reached a season high of 10 birds on the morning of the 15th.  Pairs are often coming and going, so numbers do fluctuate and I only saw a single pair this morning.