A work visit to Budby Heath yesterday produced a nice Red Kite, only my second in Notts this year, plus a few fly-over Siskin and Lesser Redpoll - but no hoped-for Crossbills. In the evening, a thrash of the patch produced 2 eclipse drake Pintail on Mons Pool (one with an orange ring on its right leg, but no metal ring), a total of 11 Curlew, and a 2CY Yellow-legged Gull amongst 652 Lesser Black-backed Gulls; I was surprised to see this number of Lesser Black-backs as on my previous evening visit on 13th there were none whatsoever.
This morning, and a good few hours working Collingham yielded my third patch Spotted Fly of the year, this time a nice showy individual on Carlton Ferry Lane adjacent to the Silt Lagoon. Other bits and pieces included 4 Curlew and single Greenshank, Common Sand and Pintail on the Silt Lagoon, 4 Green Sands and a Hobby at Mons Pool, and 459 Coot, almost all on Ferry Lane Lake, where there was an adult Yellow-legged Gull in with 40-odd Lesser Black-backs.
Whilst at Mons Pool, I checked the sightings book (which I'm afraid to say I rarely fill in), and was a bit perplexed to see news of an immature Spoonbill "in flight and appearing to land at Mons Pool" back on Saturday 12th. I don't remember seeing this reported...
A visit to the Lincolnshire coast was the order of the day yesterday. I thought conditions looked promising, but after nearly seven hours in the dunes at Rimac, all I had to show for my efforts were brief views of single Pied Fly, Redstart and Whinchat. Other migrants were thin on the ground too, with 5+ Whitethroats, 3+ Lesser Whitethroats, 2 Garden Warblers, 12+ Chiffchaffs, 6+ Goldcrests, 47 Swallows (south in several parties), 11 House Martins (south), and 3 Meadow Pipits (not moving). A Peregrine and 2 Marsh Harriers enlivened proceedings.
More patching on Friday and today. On Friday I bumped into Mark Dawson and we looked round Collingham together; there wasn't a huge amount on offer, but I picked out a Garganey on Ferry Lane Lake - this had been one of only two species that I haven't self found this year on the patch (the other being Turnstone), with Mark having found the previous Garganey.
Today, and all I could manage was single Greenshank and Common Sand, and 2 Green Sands, with a few Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and a Lesser Whitethroat still in the hedges, and a Yellow Wag, a few Meadow Pipits and a little group of Swallows over.
I spent a considerable amount of time this weekend working the hedgerows and scrub at Collingham and Besthorpe in the vain hope of a Redstart. It wasn't to be, although there were plenty of warblers around. The highlight of yesterday actually proved to be a 1st winter Med Gull with around 75 BHGs on the Silt Lagoon, whilst today it was a Lesser Redpoll - a patch tick for 2015, which flew in from the north west and dropped in to the scrub next to Meering Wood. A Siskin also flew over, only my second of the year, and a female Marsh Harrier made a brief appearance.
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| Med Gull |
The Lesser Redpoll puts me on 135 species for the year, equalling 2014's total, and one short of 2013, although I'm well down on Patchwork Challenge points compared to those years, due to the absence of any particularly notable species so far...
A good thrash round the patch was the order of the day today, and I spent around 6 hours at Collingham and Besthorpe in far from ideal conditions - my bins still haven't dried out. The only wader at Collingham was a Common Sand on Ferry Lane Lake, but a check of Mons Pool produced an eclipse drake Pintail, my first of the year on the patch, and my 134th species of the year here - now just one of last year's total.
I then spent a good hour and a half working Northcroft Lane. I hit a little hotspot of activity, with plenty of warblers flitting about, including 2 Lesser Whitethroats and a Garden Warbler. What I was really after was a Redstart, but I couldn't find one, instead making do with my second patch Spotted Flycatcher of the year.
Water levels at Meering were low, and the muddy fringes held 4 Greenshank and a Green Sand, and at least one Reed Warbler and 3 Sedge Warblers were still in the reedy fringes, but again there were no Redstarts in the scrub.
My cousin's wedding in Oxfordshire provided the perfect excuse to take the day off work on Friday and visit some sites in that part of the country in search of three butterflies that I've never seen in Britain before. First up was Otmoor, where a walk along the Roman Road just beyond the reserve carpark produced (with a little work) a Brown Hairstreak, which sat up briefly in some blackthorn before disappearing. A good start; unfortunately a tight schedule meant we couldn't explore the reserve itself, so that will have to wait for another time.
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| Brown Hairstreak |
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| The Roman Road at Otmoor |
It was then on to Aston Rowant, a super site rather spoilt by the M40. However, the short, flowery grassland not far from the carpark, on the northern part of the reserve, yielded my second target, Silver-spotted Skipper (of which there were at least two), plus several Chalkhill Blues.
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| Silver-spotted Skipper |
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| Chalkhill Blue |
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| Aston Rowant NNR |
Aston Rowant also has Adonis Blue (since 2012), but a chance encounter with a local, Chris Bottrell, saw us decide to relocate to a new site, Yoesden Bank. Chris very kindly offered to lead the way, with another local, Peter Law, joining us so. Chris left us once we arrived at the site, but myself, Amy and Peter (who has this blog) had a wander up the site, and although it had rather clouded over by now and was a little breezy, a brief sunny spell brought the hillside to life - Meadow Browns, more Chalkhill Blues, a Common Blue, and target number three, three male Adonis Blues - little stunners.
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| Adonis Blue |
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| Yoesden Bank |
So a very productive afternoon. Aston Rowant and Yoesden are beautiful sites - oh for some chalk grassland in Notts! And always good to meet nice, helpful, like-minded people. I now have five (regular) species outstanding on my British butterfly list - Heath and Glanville Fritillaries, Swallowtail, Lulworth Skipper, and Mountain Ringlet; so some more excursions to nice parts of the country will be required to clean up on these!
A visit for work to look at the restoration at Newington Quarry allowed me to bag a Whinchat for my Notts yearlist (taking me to 170), which was occupying a big patch of thistles at the eastern end of Newington North, whilst a Hobby bombed through, and a Common Sand was the only wader present. Nearby, Hagg Lane Flash held 14 Ruff, another Common Sand, and the Ruddy Shelduck (of more than dubious origin), whilst there was a roving party of around 20 juv Yellow Wags along the Idle.
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| Ruddy Shelduck |
Having done with work, I came home via Kilvington Lakes to see the Little Stint that had been reported there at 3pm. I met Bob Beck, and together we scoured the site for it, with no luck, but according to the sightings board there had also been 4 Ringed Plovers present, of which there was no sign, although one of the two Dunlin and both Greenshank were still present, along with six Common Sands. After supper, I had a quick look at the patch, where a juvenile islandica Black-wit was on Mons Pool and a Wheatear was in the field to the west, but there wasn't much else of more.
