Wheatear and Yellow Wagtails at Billets Farm...........and a Surprise!!!!

10th April 2026

After a great morning with the Nightingales at Fingringhoe Wick, time to try my luck once more with the Wheatears and Yellow Wagtails at Billets Farm. As before there was only one male Wheatear which spent all of its time feeding along the fenceline that runs along the reservoir bank and therefore always a bit distant.

However, this time instead of being just four Yellow Wagtails there were 20+, although free-ranging from the barn roofs to the fields around us. I prefer the fields to fence posts.

This bird was trying to catch an insect by the stock fence next to us, and you can see the insect in the 2nd and 3rd photos. This type of behaviour is ideal, as when they are chasing food they don't even know you exist.

And then to finish off the day nicely this bird flew in and landed on top of a Hawthorn bush just 20 yards away.

That will do nicely!!!

So what was the surprise? Well I knew something was up when I arrived at Billets car park as today there were double the most cars I have ever seen there, and surely they weren't all photographing Yellow Wagtails. I had checked Birdguides just before I left Fingringhoe and there was nothing unusual in the area.

However I soon found out that just five minutes previously Dave Low had found a 2CY Bonaparte's Gull in the middle of the reservoir. Unfortunately reservoirs are quite large and even on this side arm of the main reservoir the nearest opposite bank is 800 yards away as measured on Google Earth, and while I was there it always seemed to be about half way out.

So decent shots were out of the question, but I did manage some rather poor record shots when it was settled on the water.

What a great end to a great day!!!!