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After a somewhat damp morning (rain very welcome) I decided to head to Farmoor reservoir where several waders on my 'still to see' list for 2022 had been reported.
It was cloudy but with little wind so I donned my cotton jacket as I took the route around the smaller of the two reservoirs which was lot quieter, the other having several groups of children having sailing lessons. However there weren't many birds there really, possibly due to the presence of a lone paddle boarder who was paddling up and down quite close to the shoreline! I did spot a single common sandpiper though but it kept at a distance, flying out from the shore and back to another spot further away as I walked towards the area it was feeding in. In the bushes on the other side of the path, a common whitethroat was feeding on berries.
Although no rain had been forecast the clouds thickened and as I left the path to go down to a hide on the nature reserve next to the River Thames it started to spit with rain and then once inside it began to rain in earnest. There was no one else in the hide and no birds to see apart from a buzzard on a distant post which soon flew off.
I waited a while but soon got bored and decided to risk a wet walk back to the car The rain had eased a tiny bit and in fact it wasn't too bad; I even stopped to watch some little egrets at one end of the causeway and at the other end I found a turnstone and a juvenile ringed plover. Lots of sand martins could be seen flying low across the water too.
My bird list for the year now stands at 159 so I've revised my total end of year target upwards to 170 which would be a yearly record. With 11 more species to find in the next 4 months I'm fairly hopeful...
As I drove home the clouds began to break up and soon the sun appeared.....!
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