Starting where my last post left off.........
A single Dunlin was still about on March 7th but then moved on. My first Chiffchaff of the year was heard, though not singing, late on March 11th whilst I was going through the gull roost. Surprisingly, not a single Chiffchaff was seen over the Winter period, which is very unusual for this site, so this bird was a migrant from somewhere. By the 13th, there were three and numbers continued to build, as you would expect, so that by the 26th, I heard seven singing males around the lake.
On March 12th my first Redshank of the year arrived, a fairly typical first date, but as always nowadays, it only stayed the day and had gone by the following morning. A Dunlin also flew in that morning.
Despite doing several roosts in the peak period for Med Gull passage, my next Med Gull was actually seen in the early afternoon of March 13th. It was a lovely full summer adult, always a delight to see.
The morning of March 17th saw the return of freezing temperatures and snow flurries. I had dropped my son off at sports club and decided to spend an hour at the lake to see whether there had been any cold weather movement of waders, as we had seen during the previous cold snap. Viewing was not pleasant, as I had a biting easterly blowing straight into my face, but I wrapped up with multiple layers, hat, gloves and scarf and it was at least bearable for a short period. I found my first Little Ringed Plover of the year, huddled up and still on the east side of the spit, facing the easterly and probably wondering why it had bothered to fly all this way! About ten minutes later, a casual glance skywards and I was watching three birds flying more or less overhead and due south. Through bins I could see that they were three Sandwich Terns, unbelievable! I'm not surprised that they were flying south, probably hoping for some nicer weather. I have seen an early Sandwich Tern here before, a few years ago, on March 15th - that bird unusually stayed for two days. These three were silent as they flew and I am thankful that I looked upwards when I did or they could easily have flown over unnoticed.
On March 19th, I found a 1st winter Yellow-legged Gull early on, resting on the spit. We don't get too many of these at this time of year, so nice to see. There were also increases in the numbers of other species, which may well have been a result of the returning cold weather: 32 Snipe were feeding out in the open on the spit; my largest flock of Fieldfare of the Winter feeding in the northern fields, 140 birds and unusually, two Meadow Pipits feeding on the spit - they are usually in the northern fields or flying over.
On March 20th, I had a brief slot where I could watch the gull roost for the last twenty minutes or so of light. I decided to give it a go, as Dave C had seen an adult Med Gull during the afternoon - I was glad I did! Arriving at 6:15pm, I quickly found a lovely 1st winter Caspian Gull (my attempted record shots didn't really show it clearly) and then picked out a/the adult summer Med Gull roosting head in back on the near spit, though just as I did, this portion of the roost took to the air and mainly reassembled further back - they do this all too frequently at times and it can be a bit frustrating if you have picked something out. By 6:30pm, I decided that the light had dropped too much and was packing my scope up to leave when, looking towards the south west corner, I saw a large white bird flying and banking around. I thought it was probably a Mute Swan, but when looking through bins, it was a clearly a large egret. I knew this was a Great White Egret and so quickly made my way to the viewpoint. I could see the bird through the bare branches of the trees standing on the far side of the nearest island, but it may have seen me and almost took flight. I watched it fly towards the main island, where luckily, it landed on the dead tree branches on the south side. I attempted to take a record photo as it flew, but my usual camera settings were not working in the failing light. When it landed, I switched to an auto setting and managed to take a recognisable image - this was at 6:35pm. Whilst sending out news, I took my eye off it and it disappeared, so I don't know whether it moved to the thicker trees on the island to roost or took off to another site. Either way, it wasn't seen again. This is still a rare bird here, though I have now seen three of the four I think have been recorded here. The last two have been very brief visitors.
On March 21st, I paid a late visit to my Barn Owl site, which has failed to deliver so far this year. Unfortunately, it failed again! I did, however, get a bonus Woodcock that flew over low very late. I was really pleased with this, as I don't think there have been any near the lake this year, so thought this was one I wasn't going to see this year.
My next visit was early on March 25th. There had been a big overland movement of Common Scoter overnight and many had been found on local waters across the midlands. This site is not known for Common Scoter and unfortunately it did not share in the influx. Best I could manage was a summer plumaged Little Grebe on the south side (not that regular here) and the Cetti's Warbler, now in song, on the north side. As I was making my way round the lake, I met Ben H who told me he'd just had a pair of Goldeneye swimming out of the south-east corner. Now this would be good, a surprisingly scarce species here and one that I failed to see in 2017. We made our way through the trees to the lakeside and sure enough just to the south of the main island was a splendid pair of Goldeneye. As I was pointing them out to Ben, they suddenly took flight and I watched them fly away west and over the trees. I thought that would be the last that I saw of them, but on the 27th, whilst I was standing on the east side of the lake, a series of loud bangs went off as the bird scarer fired from across the river. Shortly later, small flocks of Tufted Ducks started to fly in that had presumably been on Randall's lake (they often seem to prefer this lake) and then the pair of Goldeneye. So on the 25th, they had presumably just relocated to Randall's.
March 26th was fairly uneventful, though there were three Little Ringed Plovers on the spit and the Little Grebe was still present. Seven Chiffchaff were singing around the lake and my first Blackcap in song was also present on the east side.
March 27th saw my first arrival of Sand Martins for the year. A single bird over mid morning was followed by a lingering flock of 20 birds feeding on a large emergence of midges in the south east corner and then another single over later on. The morning of the 28th saw 11 more birds, with nine and two through. It's great to see these birds back on patch, just hope the weather begins to improve for them as well.
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