Long Overdue Reserve First (for me at least)

Bird News: Ibsley Water - 1 swift, 1 osprey, 1 goshawk, 4+ wigeon, 3000-5000 sand martin, c1000 house martin, 1 wheatear.

Ivy Lake - 3 green sandpiper.

At least in the morning there were many thousands of sand martin over Ibsley Water and hundreds of house martin over the trees to the east. A lot of the sand martin were at times perched on the ground on the long shingle spit to the east of the Tern hide, I got a poor picture, but something of the numbers is clear even if the birds are not.

The moth trap was relatively quiet but the sun came out and there was the first common emerald damselfly of the year at the Centre pond and a fine male southern hawker dragonfly.

It was volunteer day today and we made further good progress clearing the north shore of Ivy Lake, the two shots are "before",

and after the day's work.

I had lunch int he Tern hide and was rewarded with an osprey which drifted down from the north, it was probably an adult, certainly it was not a juvenile. Very soon after I found the swift drifting about high over the lake. Then, perhaps best of all, a juvenile male goshawk flew west over the north of the lake, on the way narrowly missed catching a collared dove, my first goshawk at the reserve and long overdue.