Gosh-hawk

After a slightly longer than planned lie-in this morning, I visited Welbeck, parking in the pull off under the lime trees next to Corunna Hill Plantation. It was a bit misty, making viewing a bit difficult, but there were plenty of Buzzards up and displaying. The mist slowly lifted, and after about an hour I picked up a big, heavy chested female Goshawk briefly over the eastern end of Cat Hills Plantation. Nice!

There wasn't much on the flash at Budby Pumping Station, although there were three Mandarins (2 drakes and a female) on the river east of the bridge, and a Chiffchaff was singing. Budby Heath was more productive: I started by looking for the Firecrest that has been seen there recently in the north-east corner, but it was a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack, and needles to say, I was unsuccessful. However, there were a pair of Crossbills here, the male perching up and singing briefly. Wandering a bit further produced a singing Woodlark, 2 singing Stonechats, and 2 more singing Chiffchaffs.

Stonechat on Budby Heath

After lunch, I had a spin round Collingham Pits. The water levels were up on the Main Pit (presumably because Tarmac have stopped pumping down), but the 2 LRPs were still present, along with a Ringed Plover, a Curlew, and 2 singing Chiffchaffs, whilst the Silt Lagoon hosted 2 Oystercatchers. Nearby, Mons Pool was looking good for waders but there were only 10 Redshank, plus 2 Little Egrets and another singing Chiffchaff.

I finished the day at Langford Lowfields, where there were two singing Chiffchaffs, bring the day's total to eight. I then bumped into Michael Copplestone, the site manager (who had given a good talk about the site at the Notts Birdwatchers AGM on wednesday). Michael has been overseeing a huge amount of work at the site recently, and it has changed massively since I last properly visited; it should look amazing in a few years time once the reeds are established. As we stood chatting, we had 5 Sand Martins appear at about 6pm - shortly after there were six, and then seven, chattering away as dusk fell. 60 Fieldfares dropped in to roost, but the hoped-for Bittern fly-past failed to materialise. However, 1, possibly 2 singing Cetti's Warblers on the Silt Lagoons finished what had been a pretty good day.

Sunset at Langford Lowfields