Lesser Whitethroat

Ian Henderson came up trumps with a singing Lesser Whitethroat on Sunday morning, 121. That's the last of the 'predicted' warblers (although Lesser Whitethroat is never easy as they don't seem to 'stick' at the Nunnery Lakes). Frustratingly it had moved on / shut up by the time I was on the reserve in the afternoon and there was no sign of it on Monday. Compensation came in the form of a Red Kite (at last - my first from the Lakes rather than the Nunnery itself this year), as well as a decidedly plastic Pink-footed Goose with the Greylags.

What did I say yesterday?

Having mentioned yesterday the species I thought we may struggle to grip back from the BTO, my colleague Dave Spivack has just been over to my desk to report a flock of 30+ Pink-footed Geese flying over the reserve!

Then at lunchtime, Messrs Bashford, Blain and Oakley-Martin nailed Meadow Pipit at Biggleswade Sewage Works from the plateau at The Lodge, (but no hoped for Grey Wagtail).Steve then had a Yellowhammer over the meadow this afernoon, taking the Lodge total to 84. 

A great start to the month - The Lodge list moves to 84.

And they're off!

BTO staff were out in force (well, at least 4 of them, anyway) on New Year's Day, eager to get the Nunnery Lakes 2011 bird list up and running. Mike Toms, Dave Leech, Dawn Balmer and Neil Calbrade all texted me their best offerings, which included Woodcock, Little Egret, Goosander, Little Grebe (infrequent on the reserve, especially when most of the lakes are under ice) and otter.

I returned from 'up north' to my house on the edge of the reserve late last night; no Tawny Owl to greet me so my first Lakes year ticks had to wait until this morning. An extensive tour of duty with Dave added a few things the team hadn't connected with over the weekend: Barn Owl, Nuthatch and the Pink-footed Goose that's been around for a couple of months - the latter a big relief as this would have been a difficult species to catch up with had this individual moved on as we feared it might.

My BirdTrack list for this morning totalled 52 species, exactly the same number Mike and Dave recorded on New Year's Day. The overall total will have to wait until Wednesday when I'm back in the office and can combine everyone's records but we must be up to 60 or thereabouts.