I had a bit of an extended cycle today, as it is the weekend! During the night, a couple of friends of mine who live just north of Peterborough (in houses about five miles apart) had both heard flocks of Curlews and flocks of Common Scoters flying over! So, naturally I was feeling ‘gripped’ to have missed out on this nocturnal action. So, to compensate I did a bit of photo-therapy and snapped a few birds on my travels through Ferry Meadows CP (like one of the showy herons there).
In all I recorded about 60 species, which is pretty good for a relaxing cycle birding session close to home. It was gloriously sunny which brought up a lot of raptors, particularly Red Kites and Buzzards, but also lots of Kestrels and best of all a sky-dancing pair of displaying Sparrowhawks.
Talking of ‘sky-dancing’, I saw a strange thing, today, which I don’t remember seeing before: a Chiffchaff breaking off from singing to do a ‘butterfly’ display flight, flying slowly on quivering wings. Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps, Sand Martins and a couple of Swallows are still the only summer migrants in the park, but it won’t be long now before birds like Common Tern and Willow Warbler arrive.
One other highlight today was a flyby Oystercatcher, which is quite a scarce bird in the park.
My final photographic treat was an obliging Great Crested Grebe: such handsome birds.
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