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Wednesday 2 September 2015

An afternoon around The Cotswold Water Park

First stop Blakehill farm as a rare Woodchat Shrike had been reported.

Within ten minutes of parking in the car park I picked out the bird perched on top of a bramble bush, the bird was making short flights down to the ground searching for insects and when it found something it would return to the top of a bush to eat it, the bird is a Juvenile making its first migration journey.

Other birds seen included three Wheatears sat on the fence posts and three Yellow Wagtails searching the ground for food.

Looking skywards produced four Buzzards using the thermals to gain height and a Hobby also flew over.

A good start to the afternoon.

Next stop Waterhay several Blackcaps feeding on the blackberries also a couple of Lesser Whitethroats with them.

Walking around the reserve we picked out several Chiffchaff moving through the trees along with Blue, Great and Long tailed Tits.

On the water the number of waterfowl has started to increase with good numbers of Mallard, Gadwall, Tufted Duck and Red crested Pochard seen.

Three Common Tern were fishing around the lake two adults and a juvenile.

Stopping at a view point overlooking the water a couple of Green Sandpipers flew in along with a Common Sandpiper and two little egrets, over in the trees two Sparrowhawks were chasing each other around.

Stopping for a break at one of the hides we could hear curlew in the distance and within a few minutes 20+ birds flew over us.

On the return journey we found both Green and Great Spotted Woodpecker and a couple of Jays feeding on the ground.

A short but pleasant afternoon around my local area. DT

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