19th September – Sightings

19th September – Sightings

Sightings at Blashford Lakes - September 19th

On a windy day with occasional showers and a lot of cloud. Ibsley Water hosted hundreds of hirundines all day.  In contrast to yesterday, when almost all were house martin, today there were good numbers of swallow with quite a few sand martin as well.  In a quick estimate first thing I came up with about 400-500 swallow and perhaps 200 sand martin low over the water and closest to Tern hide, with about 500 house martin, mostly towards the north and, as is usually the case, higher up in the sky. I searched the higher house martin for a late swift, but without success.

The edges of the car park held at least 5 chiffchaff and it was my impression that there were many more about today. Generally. I was mostly stuck in meetings for the rest of the day so I have relied upon “reports received” for the rest. Over Ibsley Water single hobby, peregrine and a passing female-type marsh harrier were seen as was a fly-over cattle egret, I still have yet to see one at Blashford!  A single great white egret  spent the day on the lake among the crowd of grey heron. The juvenile black tern remained in place for its fifth day.