I spent a pleasant couple of hours at Farmoor Reservoir this morning; it had brightened up after yesterday's hail storms and I was hopeful of seeing a few more bird species. On arrival I could immediately see there were many hirundines crisscrossing the reservoir as they fed on insects on the wing. On inspection, they were made up primarily of swifts and house martins, but also some swallows; some only passing a couple of feet from my head as they zigzagged across the causeway from one basin to the other. Further along I could make out a number of house martins resting on the edge of the causeway, but I never got near enough for any photos as they were disturbed by some walkers ahead of me. After finding the greylag family from my last visit, still, with their one gosling, my attention was suddenly drawn to a group of 4 waders flying off, though not close enough to identify what they were so I just had to hope that they would return later. After reaching the end of the causeway without any wader sightings, I followed the path down to the PInkhill Nature reserve and then along to Shrike Meadow. I could hear warblers ( blackcap, sedge warbler, reed warbler and chiffchaff) and caught sight of a cuckoo flying along the river before it landed amongst the leaves of a tall tree.
Returning along the causeway, there were fewer people about, and I spotted a couple of turnstones on a raft, also a common sandpiper. The house martins and swifts had begun to disperse as the weather improved but five yellow wagtails were at various points along the wall. As I paused to admire a brood of mallard ducklings, a lady stopped and informed me she had seen a sandpiper at the end of the causeway by the boats. I made my way along, but only to find it was not a sandpiper at all but a dunlin!
greylag family
mallard duckling
yellow wagtail
dunlin
turnstone
common sandpiper
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