9 July 2007 A much more interesting week so far. I noted a number of good birds today with 3 Avocet on the river off the Dumbles from 1200-1530 at least. A few Curlew and a Whimbrel were also here as well as 45 Shelduck and 9 roosting Little Egret. Further up river an adult and second and third summer Yellow-legged Gull, Common Sandpiper and 2 more Little Egrets were present. The 100 Acre had a moulting adult Whinchat, 1 Hobby, 2 Kestrel, 2 Buzzard, 6 Little Egret and amongst the hundreds of dragonflies the first Brown Hawker of the year. JSL was fortunate to add another species to the WWT scaffolding list, a Goshawk that was busy eating a Rabbit along near the Holden Tower. The committee need to decide if you have to be on the scaffolding for it to count. The South Lake and Top/Bottom New Piece shared 40 Black-tailed Godwit, 70+ Redshank, 2+ Dunlin, a couple of Green Sandpiper, 220 Lapwing, 120 Black-headed Gull, 20 Teal and Oystercatcher. A Southern Hawker was near the centre reedbed.

Grasshopper Warbler WWT Slimbridge 100 Acre image by Nick Goatman

First-summer Mediterranean Gull, WWT Slimbridge, South Lake

image by Nick Goatman

Black-tailed Godwit islandica race
Colour-ringed islandica Black-tailed Godwit

8 July 2007 On the safari's and hide rounds today in the 100 Acre a Grasshopper Warbler was reeling, 3 Hobby feeding on insects and 9 Little Egret. A Southern Hawker was in the Bull Ground. The scrapes held a new first-summer Mediterranean Gull (South Lake) 6 Dunlin, 1 Greenshank, 23 Black-tailed Godwit, 80 Redshank and 200 Lapwing. Two Lesser Whitethroats and perhaps scarcest bird of the day was the Spotted Flycatcher along the summer walkway. A Tawny Owl was a surprise along the South Finger path at 0930 in the morning.

6 and 7 July 2007 I did not get any birding done at all but DBP had 3 Yellow-legged Gull on 6th.

5 July 2007 Belated news of an eclipse drake Red-breasted Merganser off Middle Point