Garganey - 2 Males middle of Main Channel [By Gadwall].
Hobby - Left of Tor at back of reserve.
Common Snipe Drumming & Yellow Wagtail . Plus a few Swallows & Sand Martins.
+ Greylag Goose with 5 Goslings.
Hi Stephen. I think you left as I arrived (14.00) Mixed swallows, sand martins and house martins landing on the pump house, c 20-25 swallows, 10 house martins, 4 sand martins.
Two great white egrets landed at the back of the reserve 14.45, joining two little egrets.
Sedge warbler seen and heard in hedge by the hide.
3 Drake Garganey and 1 duck this morning, displaying. Also 2 Black-tailed Godwit, pair of Pintail, Peregrine through, a few Sand Martin, Swallow and 1 Swift. Sedge Warbler singing well to the left of the hide.
1st May Thurs. (considerable rain a.m). 5 Whimbrel dropped in and stopped briefly at 1300hrs before flying off west; 3 Garganey sometimes difficult to see because of tall vegatation; i Wigeon; 2 Shoveller and a dozen or more Gadwall made up the duck nos, with a couple of broods of Greylags; 2 Hobbies one Marsh Harrier and a couple of Buzzards appeared when the rain finally stopped.
2 Drske Garganey still present, 4 Whimbrel flew over(8:30am)1 Cuckoo heard and a Lesser Whitehroat singing in the car park hedge. Otherwise much as previous days.
Early evening, shortly before the rain started, saw a large flock of hirundines feeding low over the water, mostly Swallows with a few House and Sand Martins, the two drake Garganey are still present but the Wigeon have moved on. 4 Black-tailed Godwit looked as though they were going to drop in but changed their minds. Whitethroat and Lesser Whitethroat singing in the car park.Cuckoo calling from the fen area.
While sheltering from the heavy rain on Thursday a.m. 2 G.W.Egrets arrived and settled at distance, in the long vegetation, after a long hard look I realised that one of them was a ringed bird, Orange over Dark Green on the left leg and Orange over metal on the right This bird was first seen on Noah's Lake Shapwick in 2012 when it only stayed for a couple of days before heading off to the Camel Estuary in Cornwall. It is a sibling of the long staying orange over pistachio (Lime Green) ringed bird that has stayed around the Avalon Marshes since April 2010. Worth looking for if there's nothing else happening!
7 Whimbrel dropped in at 1300 hrs less than 100M from the hide but completely hidden in the tall Veg. They left westward after 15mins : 1 Wigeon 1 Shoveller and a couple of dozen Gadwall and Mallard were the only duck visible!
A peaceful extended lunch hour, (12 -1400hrs) in Catcott hide produced singles of Hobby, Marsh Harrier and Kestrel all distant. Only a couple of open water patches now visible but level is still well up. A drake Garganey and a drake Wigeon showed briefly plus 2 male Shovellers , a couple of dozen Gadwall flying around with a few loafing Mallard. These duck were well outnumbered by the family parties of Greylags which have had a very successful breeding season. The only Waders noted was a flyby Snipe and 4 Lapwing. Plus three human surveyors busily engaged out on the reserve, doing I know not what!
