Sunday 29 April 2012

Sunday 29th April 2012 - Evening

From Rob H via NBBR


A visit to Manor Farm this evening proved rather pleasant, once the rain had stopped. Blue skies and sunshine - very unfamiliar after the last few weeks.

Lots of waders on site, but nothing too unusual - 3 Ringed Plover, c10 LRP, 2 sum plum Dunlin, 3 Oycs, 1 Common Sand, 2 Snipe and 1 Redshank. Also c15 Lapwings, several of which were engaged in territorial behaviour, which hopefully indicates the survival of some chicks, athough none of these were seen.

Also 6 Wheatear along the southern shore, scattered wagtails included 4 Yellow and 1 White Wag. And the sky was filled with hirundines - an estimated 150+ Swallow, 100+ Sand Martin, 45+ House Martin and c10 Swift.

The Ouse has broken it's banks, and in several places water was running swiftly down the northern side onto the excavations, which are now severely flooded. This actually has made the site look superb for passage waders, but as for the breeders I'm not so sure. There's still plenty of vegetated ground well above water, where the majority of the Lapwings nested. So hopefully some chicks will have escaped the floods. But who knows how further rain will affect this situation in the future.

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