Century

Met Pete over at Walthamstow this lunchtime, apparently I had missed the first patch Common Tern which flew over the Lockwood earlier that morning, I think I may catch that one up before long. The Tern rafts are all refurbished and in place so bring them on....

We had a walk around numbers 1, 2 and 3 Reservoirs and counted the Little Egrets that could be on nests, possibly 10 pairs! Given the productivity here last year we could be knee deep in the creatures by late summer. 50+ birds! We will see.

Whilst checking this out we both cried 'Redstart' at the same time, as one suddenly appeared in front of us, tail-a-quivering. We obviously thought that a flycatching, Tree-hugging Redstart would be Common, but I got a better view than Pete and realised it was a Black Redstart, probably an immature male. Sadly it moved steadily through the Trees and disappeared, despite searching we could not refind it. You wait twenty one years for another Black redstart and they all come together.(Pete went back later and refound it at 18:00. It is between Nos. 2 & 3 on the West side if you are interested.)

A Whitethroat and Sedge Warbler, both singing at the North end of the East Warwick were obviously new in. A couple of Kingfishers were hanging, suspiciously, around the island on No.1 (we know what you're up to.) Pete decided to have his lunch and I decided to find a patch year tick Red Kite, sadly Pete won that contest but we did both have a flyover Yellow Wagtail which got me to a hundred for the year, on patch.

Mark Pearson also won as he had, what should have been my Kite, fly over the Reservoirs at 18:07, maybe I will catch that one up soon too! He also had a pair of Goldeneye going South-east, which would have been a nice addition to the house list if I had been looking and not cooking my dinner. All in all not a bad day, but slightly sad as I only got about 116 species for Walthamstow all last year and now I am on 100 already....it's nearly all over :-(
PW