Peregrine almost ruins day

Photos:

White Stork, oddly marked Buzzard and Roe Deer at West Moor, Somerset
Red-necked Phalarope and first summer Little Gull, Upton Warren

15^th May 

When I got to my hotel last night and checked some websites, I was a little miffed to find a White Stork had been seen just a few miles from my hotel. Given my usual insomnia in hotels, I was up at dawn this morning and heading towards West Moor. There was not a soul around as I headed through the grass to the point where the stork had been. I did surprise a Roe Buck who didn’t quite know what to make of me and so just stood and stared for ten minutes. 

Eventually I found the stork, still in residence though distant and flighty. I watched this superb bird for around an hour or so before I realised I had to go to work and thus I trotted off back to my car, seeing a weirdly marked Buzzard on the way. 

On my way home this afternoon I heard of a female Red-necked Phalarope at Upton Warren and given I was literally driving past it (few birders realise how close this place is to the motorway) I decided to make a pit stop.  

I had a quick chat with one of the warden’s I know, John Belser before moving to the hide and getting straight onto the phalarope. It was with some Dunlin and was constantly being pestered by Black-headed Gulls which breed here. After around ten minutes, just as we were all sat patiently and quietly, suddenly without warning a Peregrine appeared and was off with a small wader. No one saw it approach and even the gulls didn’t react to it. 

There then followed that sickening feeling in the hide – had the falcon done for the phalarope. Fortunately one chap in the downstairs section (new hide by the way and much better than the old one for me) had snapped the Peregrine and we were just about able to identify the wader as a Dunlin. Nevertheless the phalarope had done one and didn’t come back at all. 

There was still plenty to go at here though with lots of Avocets, Little Ringed Plovers, a fox and a first summer Little Gull which has been around for a few weeks and has set up a territory in front of the hide. 

I eventually got home this evening, finding a Wheatear and a Corn Bunting in Highfield Lane as I drove down it and then later taking Bill to HGF 210+ Swifts, 170+ Swallows, 3 Little Ringed Plovers and a Common Sandpiper were present.