Wednesday 9th May
A couple of good species around today. Although the wagtail had evidently gone overnight, there were 2 Sandwich Terns at Longham Bridge this morning, then 1 later in the afternoon (Chris Parnell). This species is very rare here, but in several years recently, in the spring, birds have appeared this far up the Stour. Also today there was a male Mandarin Duck on the big island on Longham Reservoir South. In the poor conditions in mid-afternoon another big fall of Swallows occurred, with once again at least 1000 present – for the third time in a week!
