Monday evening birding...

As promised, I visited Willington Gravel Pits again yesterday evening and, as I thought, all the good birds that had been there on Sunday had moved on! One of these days I will get to see Avocet on my local patch. No, I will, honest. They can run, but they can’t hide forever!

My two-hour visit gave me a total of 44 species. Garden Warbler was picked up by song alone but all the other birds were seen well, either in the lane or out on the two main pits. Highlights were a little thin on the ground, as were the birds, but 24 Canada Goose goslings were still small enough to look cute (until they grow up!); 12 Gadwall were feeding on Gull Pit; a pair of Oystercatcher were kept busy all evening ferrying food to a single chick; a Little Ringed Plover appeared briefly before vanishing again just as quickly and a couple of Common Sandpiper spent quite a time feeding close to platform 3.

Gull Pit, from platform 3.

Four Wigeon were an unexpected find and the two males looked stunning as the late evening sun picked out their bright summer plumage. A few Swift were hawking for insects over the water and around the trees in the lane, a single House Martin flew through and a handful of Swallow were also seen. Both Sedge and Reed Warbler showed very well with a couple of Reed Warblers coming to within six feet of the viewing platform.

Luckily, I had my camera with me as usual and I was able to capture what is a very rare event at Willington, so scarce that it has only occurred on one previous occasion many, many years ago. Lynda visited Willington Gravel Pits! I would have sent a record of this sighting in to the county recorder, but I couldn’t be bothered with the full field notes that would be needed to get the sighting accepted! Photo evidence will have to suffice on this occasion.

Local Birder - sub-species "Lynda"!