Common Reed Bunting, Alston Reservoirs.
SPRING MIGRATION IS COMING TO AN END, with all but the highest Arctic breeding birds already gone through. In fact it will not be long before the return passage starts, usually with Common Scoter and Green Sandpiper leading the way. I thought the rain would ground something this morning and unfortunately I made the wrong choice in trudging around Alston instead of going to Stocks, where I would have seen a Sanderling. Ah well. Breeding birds are well established now and a pair of reed buntings and Sedge Warblers were in the small marsh by No. 1 and a chiffchaff was still belting out its song there too. The LRPs are still on the wetland but there were no passage shorebirds today… yet. Stocks was also quiet and there was nothing ahead for the heavy rain, which hit around 1100. There are at least three pairs of Great Crested Grebes this year and four Red-breasted Mergansers were still around. The pair of Great Black-backed Gulls had a large exclusion zone around them on the island as usual and a couple of Common Sandpipers, a redshank and a drumming snipe from the walled garden were the only shorebirds seen. Garden Warblers seem to be present in good numbers this year with at least four heard between the causeway and old hide. Well that's it for today then. Hopefully there is still time for something interesting before the ELOC area goes to sleep again for the summer. It's a great time of year for an overshoot.