The star bird of the month though, wasn’t a passage migrant but more likely a result of post-breeding dispersal. From just before the middle of July a few reports started to come in of a kingfisher (below) being spotted along the New River. Views were generally fleeting, but it wasn’t long before the bird grew in confidence and started to perch happily allowing good views. The favourite perches were mostly not far from the water inlet next to the main entrance, but the bird could be found almost anywhere on site, either perched on reed, in waterside willow, or on a variety of metal bars around the inlet. From close views it could be seen that the bird was a young male.

When a common sandpiper spent a day here on July 3^rd, mostly on one of the tern rafts, it raised hopes that a few migrant wading birds might be about to pass through, but unfortunately this was the only wader seen in the month. Little egrets were seen daily at the start of the month, generally near the water inlet, but sightings fizzled out around the middle of the month. It was a similar story with common terns, seen daily for most of the month but not seen in the last week of the month. It seems likely that they attempted to breed this year, which would have been a first for the site, but unfortunately there was no evidence of breeding success.

Up to a handful of shoveler (above) were here all month, and numbers should increase from now until the end of autumn. This should be true of several of our duck species.

House martins don’t breed on site or nearby but they will often come here to feed. Large flocks are usually a feature of late autumn once the breeding season is over but we did have a flock of around fifty here on July 26^th. Other non-regular visitors were a great black-backed gull on the 7^th and a flyover jackdaw on the 25^th.

The first passage migrant warbler of autumn was a garden warbler seen on the 17^th, and there were a few more sightings later in the month. A lesser whitethroat appeared to take up residence here for a period from the 27^th, being seen near-daily for the rest of the month. The first willow warbler (above) was seen on the 30^th.

A pair of great crested grebes which nested amongst the lagoons finally hatched some young in the last few days of the month. The young hadn’t left the nest by the end of the month but they are likely to be a feature of August here…

The total number of bird species seen here in July 2022 was 63, beating the previous July by two but a few down on the July average for the previous few years.