A group of seven Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters including a bird with no tail were on the overhead power lines and low lying scrub, near the settling pond, which may be the last group that I see this year as it is getting quite late for them now. I checked the drainage ditch which has a bit of water left in it but unfortunately no birds with the exception of a Common Moorhen. The scrubby desert had a female Pied Wheatear and a few Crested Larks and the settling pond had been filled up with water since my previous visit and there were a few muddy edges with only five White Wagtails feeding along the concrete edge. The spray fields only had a single Tawny Pipit and five White Wagtails. I then went to the percolation pond and saw a single female Northern Shoveller, two Mallards, a Grey Heron, a Great Crested Grebe and 37 Cattle Egrets in a tree ready to go to roost for the evening in the reed beds below. The spray fields have now got a few Water Pipits and three Siberian Stonechats, and two Daurian Shrikes and one Turkestan Shrike were also present. The days are really drawing in now and birding time is limited in the evenings and the weather has a feel of winter about it.
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| Blue-cheeked Bee-eater |
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| Pied Wheatear |
