Birding bits in August

My birding during August has continued to be fairly low key. Saturday morning patch visits with the little one have been a feature, but are typically rather brief and superficial, and I have failed to manage many visits at any other times without an impatient 9 month old. 

As a result, hopes of a Redstart, Spotted Fly or Whinchat, or a decent wader, have faded, and I've had to make do with generally low numbers of common passage waders at Mons, interspersed with the odd other highlights- a 2cy Med Gull which lingered at Meering before flying upriver on the 12th, a Whimbrel calling over Mons on the 16th, a Grey Wag south on the 25th (new for Patchwork Challenge in 2018), and a Garganey on Mons on the 27th. 

The highlight of breeding bird activity has been the successful fledging of three Common Terns from the new tern raft on Mons Pool - build it and they will come! These young are still hanging around with their parents. 

Elsewhere, I've managed a few visits to Cotham Landfill, generally on the way into work - the highlight there was an adult (or possibly 4cy) Caspian Gull on 20th. Work took me north on 21st, and a quick look at Hagg Lane Flash near Newington produced 2 Ruff, a Greenshank and a Dunlin, and 52 Little Egrets - a local had had 63 there that morning, and I know there was count of 70+ made a few days later. Pretty amazing given the status of this species not so very long ago... A visit to the new visitor centre at Sherwood Forest was generally unremarkable, save for a party of four Woodcock - at least 2 juvs, and one or two adults. I can't remember ever having seen a family party before. 

Finally, birding from the garden has produced a couple of garden ticks - Hobby and Yellow Wag. The Swifts departed promptly and en masse, with 120 in a high-flying screaming flock being present on the 2nd, and then just the odd one or two in subsequent days. Having purchased a Swift box at the Birdfair, I hope maybe to have a pair nesting on my house in the coming years...

Summer gulling

With no big gulls at Collingham at the moment, I've been getting my gull fix at Cotham Landfill and Kilvington Lakes. A couple of visits to the latter this week have produced decent numbers of Yellow-legged Gulls - 16 on Wednesday, and at least 30 today. Most are adults or near adults, but there have been a couple of 2cy and juv birds around - with two juvs together today (and a few juv LBBGs for comparison). A juv Common Gull was the only other gull of note.

The images below show the 2 juv YLGs from today - the second and third birds from the left in the first shot (with LBBGs), and shots of both birds showing upper wing, and nice tail/rump pattern. I appreciate they're not the best photos in the world...