Lockdown Diary: Thursday, 2.7.20

Yesterday, after work, I decided to feed my butterfly addiction, once more, with a visit to Castor Hanglands NNR, which is only a short hop from home. Purple Emperors were once more my aim, and the calm weather looked promising. However, it was a tad too cool for most butterflies, and I only got the briefest glimpse of one PE around a favoured oak I like to stake out. One butterfly which seems to come to life in the last few hours of the day is the Purple Hairstreak, and lots of these wee beauties came out in the cool early evening air, chasing each other around. Birdwise, I was once more croaked and whistled at by a Nightingale. I took a brief recording of the interesting calls (which I will load to Xeno-canto.org later).

A Hobby whizzed by and as I was leaving I saw this Goldfinch buried among the thistles…

Goldfinch, Castor Hanglands NNR, Cambs, 2.7.20
So, I was once again off to Deeping Lakes LWT. I had heard that 19 Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits had called into the east pit there; and sure enough, they were present and correct when I arrived. There are a couple of viewing screens overlooking this pit, which is covered in islands of various sizes covered in birds!. The Common terns and Lesser Black-backed Gulls have had a disastrous breeding season, though, perhaps owing to visits from the local red Kites, which can snatch a chick with impunity.
Anyhow as I arrived at the slightly more western screen, a bird scarer (they sound like shot guns, and are common round here) went off, and the godwits took flight. I followed a flock of 9 as they circled overhead, then glided back as if to land again. But instead, they headed strongly north, until I could no longer see them. It was 8pm. The other 10 were gone, too.
I scanned the rest of the pit, and located 3 Common Sandpipers, my first of the ‘autumn’! Also there were 9 Egyptian Geese, which is the most I have counted there for a good while, I believe.
At 8.10pm, 9 Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits landed in the exact spot they had been at before. Was this the same 9 as before, or a new 9, I don’t know, but I suspect they may have been the same birds. They drank and fed and settled in quickly. It was interesting to see them occasionally getting feisty with each other and attempting a bit of a bill fight. I don’t think I had ever notice how they dip their tails down and flash the black panel at each other, before.

Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits (the 9), Deeping Lakes LWT, 2.7.20
But at 9.25pm the 9 got agitated and started calling. Were they about to leave? No, they were announcing the arrival of a further 30 Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits to the pit! So, now there were 39 of these brick-red beauties in front of me, chattering away, bathing, feeding and fighting. Icelandic-race birds (Limosa limosa islandica) are smaller, darker red and slightly shorter billed and shorter legged that the nominate European ones (L. l. limosa), which have a tiny foothold UK breeding foothold at the Nene Washes, just east of Peterborough, and so are familiar birds to us Peterborians. The islandica birds also seem to be seem less obviously dimorphic than the limosa subspecies, with males and females looking very similar, equally gorgeous!

Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits (part of a flock of 30), Deeping Lakes LWT, 2.7.20
The ‘original’ 9 edged slowly closer to the newcomers, until they eventually mingled among them and became as one. Then, at 8.43pm, there was more calling than usual and many of the godwits looked upwards. Was there to be a new flock of birds? No, just one, and it was a Ruff, joining the gathered godwits. It also bathed briefly and drank, but 5 mins later, it was off, flying strongly south.

Spot the Ruff. With Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits, Greylag Geese and Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Deeping Lakes LWT, 2.7.20
Are these migrating birds failed breeders or non-breeders, or early breeders heading south? Probably, but none of the perhaps 50-60 Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits I saw this evening were colour-ringed, so this is just speculation. Great birds to watch, though, whatever.