Wednesday 1 April 2009

Hirundine cometh....

While I was observing from the track near Cadaver Corner for Osprey along came Guy who had been doing the same 20m further up! So we joined forces and kept our eyes to the sky for best part of 2 hours. No Osprey, we did see Peregrine, Ravens, Skylarks 4, and Guy had Wheatear 1 earlier (see LDBWS), there was also about 5/7 Little Egret, we had 1 Swallow.
Later, Dan turned up at Freeman’s and with murky conditions approaching from the south the weather pushed in at least 3 flocks of 9/12 Swallow and Sand Martin. Blackcap and Chiffchaff singing from the woods. In the mean time 3 yobs and a dog took it upon themselves to have a stroll around edge of Freeman’s Pool with air pistols, which flushed a number of birds including 6/7 Snipe and generally greatly upset the equilibrium, as we were watching incoming migration they were trying to shoot things!
This evening Guy text to say LEO and BO showing well. Cycled down and missed the LEO, which according to Guy, was chased into woods by two Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Got a view of Barn Owl though it was getting a bit dark to see clearly. Also, despite all the commotion earlier the pools were back to normal including 2 LRP on the island.
Stevew

2 comments:

Pete Woodruff said...

A (mainly) deeply disturbing post Steve re not only the 'yobs' but with air rifles. There is/was an incident telephone number on the gate a both ends of this pool but what happens if we use it won't be known until we do.


Pete.

Jon Carter said...

It is a worry, but sadly one of those things semi-urban sites have to simply put up with.
I think the Incident Hotline refers to kids drowning or fly-tipping and such, but I may be wrong! I guess it's worth a try - anyone know what the law is regarding this?