Friday 6 June 2014

Far Ings 1-6-14

I decided on a early start today and on site by 6.00 starting at Pursuit pit watching Common Tern and Avocet after 10 mins or so I made my way up Far ings road and heading to Ness Hide but half way along I was stopped by the purring of a Turtle Dove,which was my first for the year


I sat in Ness Hide chatting to Dave alan for a while when I heard another Turtle dove and sure enough there it was sat on top of the owl box post,so on that note I back tracked down to where I saw the other one to try and pin down 2 birds but no luck.
I then made my way round the new pits and could hear a Grasshopper Warbler reeling but it went quiet when I got close,and soon as I carried on it started to reel again so I carried on my way up to New pit 3 and got this cracking Common Tern sat on a post and allowed me to get as close as possible.


What a great moment to have with this bird they don't normally let you up close,after a while I made my way around New pits 4 and 5,with a few Whitethroat and Blackcaps singing ,I then bumped in to Ted Sabin who was doing his survey who also had Turtle Dove but on gravel pit lane so could we have 2 birds ? and he also had spent some time with the Common Tern made me wonder if it is a sick bird hope not but it did fly off to the Tern raft and came back to the same post so maybe a favoured perch.
We walk down to Chowder but the flats was empty but we did manage 2 Turnstone flying past along the river.We then both went our separate ways and I walked along the bank and sat to watch the high tide and look for any porpoise but to no avail,
I then made my way back to Ness farm where I bumbed in to another friend who told me he had 3 Hairy Dragonflies on Far Ings 2 weeks before 1 female oviposating on the small pond and 2 males along the track from Ness I know he knows his dragonflies,but then that made me think back to the week before I had 2 dragonflies 1 was sat and I had a good look at it and thought to myself that looks a bit hairy but passed it off as a Southern Hawker but would be very early,I know until now the the only population of Hairy Dragonflies around here is at Messingham san quarry so could Far Ings be a new site ????