Today I have been mostly photographing Yellow Wagtails

24th May 2016

The plan today was to try and photograph some warblers and Adders at Fingringhoe Wick and then move on to Abberton Reservoir for possibly some waders or terns in front of the hides and Yellow Wagtails on the Layer Breton causeway. In the event the birds and Adders had other ideas as Fingringhoe was pretty quiet apart from this single cooperative Chiffchaff, and the Adder bank was now considerably overgrown compared to our last visit just a few weeks ago.

So straight on to Abberton and on this occasion even the car park had more birds than Fingringhoe. A rather odd mixture with the ever-present Sky Larks but also a lone Rook which perched patiently on a fence post waiting to have his photo taken. I assume that other Rooks find them attractive.

Sadly there were no waders in front of the Island Hide, but this 1st summer Black-headed Gull was strutting round right outside to prove that they do indeed get their chocolate brown head in their 1st summer, but much later than the adults. There were also a few Common Terns flying to and fro to add to the activity.

Out on the reservoir were two pairs of Coot and the two males were were obviously having a territorial dispute, although with 1200 acres of water at their disposal seems a little unnecessary. Interesting to see that one of the females just sat and and watched from a safe distance.

On the foreshore was a rather smart Pied Wagtail which was collecting food for its young, although the nest must have been a long way away.

But then one of the stars of the show, a male Yellow Wagtail, turned up and gave a fantastic display right in front of the hide, and further along the trail a female gave us a watchful eye on one of the fences. The Yellow Wagtail is certainly one of the most exotic UK breeding species.