Farmoor Reservoir :: 02 September 2018

A tremendously good time at Birmingham Symphony Hall last night, entertained by Ward Thomas, Imelda May and Texas. A late arrival home but awake by 6.30am. I decided to drop into Farmoor Reservoir as the weather was to be good and changing Monday.

The water was calm when I arrived and still too early for most to be out in boats on F2. Almost the first bird up was a little grebe diving beside the valve tower. A number of coot were diving alongside. A father and his two children were feeding ducks and a dozen or so juvenile black-headed gulls.

I headed for the causeway and soon picked out terns working along F1; there were 6 and appeared to be the black terns [#138] I'd missed all year. Three guys were seated by the first set of buildings, watching the terns; they appeared to be over towards the other bank but we all decided they were probably closer to the middle. I continued on but didn't see anything on the causeway, other than Canada and greylag geese. As I passed one group though, a juvenile dunlin fed at the waters edge.

I reached the end of the causeway and decided to make a circuit of F1 and hope to get closer to the black terns. As I went round they always seemed to be distant, as I had feared. I did come across calling chiffchaff and a number of willow warbler. As I sat and watched the tern I saw a couple of birds cutting across the surface of the water and took a couple of photos - it turned out to be a yellow wagtail [#139] chasing a common sandpiper; these sandpiper seem to get chased a bit and I remember seeing similar behaviour at Grimsbury Reservoir, although on that occasion it was pied rather than yellow wagtail.

I took a few record shots of the terns but they never got close enough for a proper shot.

As I passed the water treatment buildings I saw another (same?) yellow wagtail and a small flock of linnet. Ahead I also saw a kestrel on a fence but it moved ahead before I got close.

I had another look along the causeway before I headed for home, but the tern were still far out. I bought a coffee to get change for the car park barrier and headed home.

Sightings (30) included: black-headed gull, black tern, blue tit, buzzard, canada goose, carrion crow, chiffchaff, common sandpiper, coot, cormorant, dunlin, goldfinch, great crested grebe, grey heron, grey wagtail, greylag goose, kestrel, lesser black-backed gull, linnet, little grebe, mallard, moorhen, mute swan, pied wagtail, swallow, teal, tufted duck, willow warbler, woodpigeon and yellow wagtail.