Birds and Hoverflies

Monday 20th - Tuesday 21st August 2012
Wood Sandpiper
A good morning at Slimbridge yesterday began with a walk down the canal towpath before the trust opened where a juvenile Cuckoo flew across the canal and perched on wires on the other side, just north of Slimbridge Bridge. In one of the roadside fields, 72 Greylag Geese were congregated. At WWT a first-winter Arctic Tern was off the Dumbles edge at high tide. I moved on to Zeiss Hide to find a Spotted Redshank, a Greenshank, a Turnstone, 28 Dunlin, 16 Ringed Plover, a Sanderling and two Ruff among the waders on the Top New Piece.
Greenshank, left, and Spotted Redshank, right, on the Top New Piece
This morning, two large hoverflies Volucella Zonaria were on the garden mint, the first of the year. Other recent hoverflies include garden first Helophilus hybridus.
Volucella Zonaria
Volucella Zonaria
Helophilus hybridus
Back at WWT this afternoon, I watched a juvenile Marsh Harrier from the Holden Tower beyond a maize field in the direction of the 100-acre. The juvenile Wood Sandpiper was showing well from Stephen Kirk hide working the far edge of the scrape (top photo and below). In all seven Green Sandpipers were on the Tack Piece.

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