Double flush

This morning’s foray for Wadery goodness was met with drizzle and therefore a modicum of optimism, this soon dissolved however as a walk around the Lockwood revealed that Common Sandpipers were down from three to two, Greenshanks were totally absent and the only other Waders present were the on/off pair of Oystercatchers. Sometimes they are here, sometimes on the East Warwick, occasionally on No.5 but usually nowhere to be seen. Where else do they go? Will they ever breed?

All was not lost however as I inadvertently flushed a Turtle Dove from the grass bank at the North end of the Lockwood. I didn’t see it until it until it flew and when it did it just kept going in the direction of Higham’s Park till lost to view. Lol, who needs it for the patch, had been loft watching until just before this but decided to have some breakfast as I found out when I called to tell him of my good fortune. The only other birds of note were a couple of single flyover Yellow Wagtails.

I spotted Pete at the South end of the Lockwood as I was preparing to leave, we had a quick phone conversation and as he said it looked good for a Turnstone on the East Warwick I decided to give that a go rather than give up. Though if I am honest I don’t think I really expected to find one. One thing is for sure, if I didn’t look I certainly wouldn’t find one.

Needless to say there was no stone being turned when I traipsed round, but I inadvertently (is this becoming a habit?) flushed a group of 9 Yellow Wagtails out of the Reeds on the Western edge of the reservoir, they flew around for a bit and came down further up the bank, unusually most of them disappeared into the flowers and denser vegetated bit around the edge rather than parade around in front of me on the path. When I did get a decent look though, at least 4 of them were Blue-headed (or hybrid). The best picture is of the worst looking of them, probably a washed out female but a couple were quite smart males, though with perhaps a bit more white on the throat than they should have for pure flava. Can’t say I really know how much white is too much. They certainly didn’t have the pale Lavender head colouring of Channel Wagtail, so perhaps they were within acceptable limits of variation for pure Blue-headed.
PW