A trip to the ‘patch’ last night produced a scattering of migrants with the spray fields holding most of the birds. There were at least four Whinchats present including a stunning adult male bird and three Ortolan Buntings. Two Tree Pipits and a minimum of 20 Red-throated Pipits including a number in full breeding plumage. A few Yellow Wagtails were about including one adult leutea with bright yellow plumage and a greenish mantle. Several Turkestan Shrikes, two Woodchat Shrikes and a male Daurian Shrike were also seen.
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| Woodchat Shrike |
Northern and Isabelline Wheatears were seen in small numbers and a Namaqua Dove was flushed from the cover in the fields. Waders included a Common Snipe and Common Greenshank in the spray fields and two Wood Sandpipers and a Kentish Plover on the Settling Pond. Twenty plus Barn Swallows and five Pallid Swifts were hawking insects over the fields and a Common Redstart was also present.
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| Isabelline Wheatear |
The percolation pond had six Garganey, two Little Egrets and seven Western Cattle Egrets but not much else and an Upcher’s Warbler was seen in the scrub near the pond. A few Willow Warblers and Common Chiffchaffs were also about and a Spotted Flycatcher was also seen on the wires surrounding the pond. Eurasian Hoopoe numbers are still relatively high with three birds seen.
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| Eurasian Hoopoe |