24th April 2009

Spent most of the morning at the lakes, though I also had 1 Skylark, 4 Lapwings and 5 Stock Doves at the field around the Hungry Horse. Up to 7 terns at a time were seen at the lakes, though of these I only managed to positively ID 5+ Common Terns. Of these, one had a shorter, darker beak than the other bird it was associating with, which made me wonder if it was an Arctic, but all of its other features indicated that it was a Common - I wonder though if someone without a scope would've identified it as an Arctic, especially as the leg length of these birds seem to vary depending on their posture (at least that's what I find). There were also 2 Common Sandpipers and a female Mallard with a brood of 11 at Windmill Pool.
M.P. Griffiths