Wednesday proved a much better day for ‘exercise birding’ in these here parts. The weather was brooding and drizzly, with low cloud first thing, which brought down a flock of 7 Arctic Terns from the sky ‘like angels’ as one of my friends put it! They stuck together closely, patrolling up and down Gunwade Lake (the largest of the three lakes) for 25 minutes, before disappearing back into the clouds.
Unusually, for Arctic Terns (which are strictly passage birds here in Peterborough), this flock were calling, with sweet clipped contact calls and light, bell-like trills, quite unlike the harsher notes of Common Terns.
Half an hour later, a Whimbrel whizzed by, heading roughly north-north-east. This non-calling bird was a local (Peterborough area) year tick for me as well as a my 110th bird for Ferry Meadows CP in 2020.
My 111th bird was not far behind, with my first Hobby of the season scaring the living daylights out of all the local hirundines (of which their were hundreds feeding over the water, with particularly high numbers of House Martins).
Other highlights of a bit of a vigil looking over Gunwade were a couple of Common Sandpipers, a single Swift, which buzzed right past my head (not obeying social distancing!), and the song of the Nightingale a couple of hundred metres away on Coney Meadow (present since 21st). Ooh, I also had a Cuckoo singing, as I cycled home.
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