Tuesday 28 June 2011
Signs today of the bird seasons moving on with my first Little Grebe since early April, in the channel just south of the Green Bridge.  Almost at the same time, a Green Sandpiper flew high NE overhead calling.  Again my first since April.  Otherwise, I saw a Sparrowhawk carrying prey, but this one flew down over the west side of the Lockwood Reservoir and carried on, so wasn’t one of the Tottenham Marshes pair.  Perhaps this was one of the pair that George and I think breed at The Paddock most years?

Most birds still singing, but no sound of the Garden Warbler or the Reed Bunting that turned up in early June.  Terry saw a Kingfisher and a Hobby yesterday, but I have still not recorded either on the Marshes this year ..yet! 

Thursday 23rd June 2011
Saw a juvenile Kestrel sitting on top of gasometer at 8.40am, at 8.45 it flew off east and then there were two juveniles chasing a male Kestrel and calling at it.  So it looks as if there were just 2 young raised this year from the gasometer nest and not the three I thought I saw one time.  Also saw 2 young Lesser Black-backed Gulls with adult on the roof of one of the buildings north of the gasometer, (viewed from the Chalk Bridge) and then, from the Banbury Reservoir, saw another 2 on top of another building there.  I’ve thought the LBBs were breeding there, from the number of times I’ve seen adults on the buildings, but this is the first time I’ve had proof of breeding.

For those with an interest in flowers, in the east bit of the pond there’s a Celery-leaved Buttercup.

Pete Lambert