Marina Update

With the heavy rain showers and more prolonged torrential downpours over the past few days the marina has certainly been the place to be! I’ve spent all my spare time sky watching from the comfort of the boat, my large windows provide an excellent vista with uninterrupted views of the sky and surrounding low hills.

Common Redstart

Visible migration continues at pace with hundreds of Swallows and House Martins, along with the odd Sand Martin, passing through constantly throughout the day. Swifts are now at a premium and I’ve only been able to record a single bird over the last week. The odd Wader has also dropped in with brief visits from Common Sandpiper and Greenshank, 2 Snipe were also seen near the marina entrance Thursday evening.

Things got even more exciting when I took a walk around the dog-walking field early yesterday morning after a heavy downpour and discovered a very attractive ♂Wheatear and was further rewarded with 2 Yellow Wagtail. The best however was on the walk back to my mooring when I was delighted to see 2 Black Tern whizzing through.

Black Tern

Out and about this morning after heavy overnight rain, goodness knows we need it with the canal at a desperately low level, and even more excitement when I came across a very flighty ♂Common Redstart. Later this afternoon a late Swift, 3 Common Tern, 6 Wigeon and yet another Black Tern, this time hanging around a little longer than the previous two.

Most birds from our small Reed Warbler population have departed but a few still remain, no Sedge Warblers have been seen for several days.

Away from the migratory birds a large flock of around 50+ Goldfinch has been constantly feeding within the grounds and smaller flocks of Linnet are also regular visitors. Pied Wagtails are still coming in each evening to roost and a quick count yesterday produced 82 birds, it has to be said mostly Juvenile! Tawny Owls are once again calling each evening from the surrounding woods but no recent signs of our local Little Owls. Common Buzzards, which have had a terrific breeding season locally, have stopped mewing which seemed to be a constant over the past few weeks. Maybe the cooler weather has finally calmed them down.