Essex – Abberton – 16th August 2009

A mild summer’s morning and its now time to see if bird movements have started. Being a reservoir Abberton is a typical place that these early signs might be detected and we were not disappointed. The fist thing of note was the large gatherings of particular species, c200 Coot, c100 Greylag Geese, c100 Canada Geese and c50 Little Egrets all pointing to the fact that these birds had left their breeding sites.

Then in the margins a few incomers; 2 juvenile Little Ringed Plovers, 5 Ruff, 3 Yellow Wagtails, Common Sandpiper and a Barnacle Goose (suspect I know!). Added to this there were Mallard, Shoveller and Pochard, all in eclipse and a flock of juvenile Goldfinch feeding off the turned over Hog Weed on the waters edge.

Life bird count: 389 Year bird count: 230 Month bird count: 63