Idle Washlands and Idle Valley – 7th June

Today’s field meeting was a visit to north Nottinghamshire. We started at the Ship Inn, Newington near Bawtry, where we looked over Newington Flash (which is actually in South Yorkshire) for about half an hour. There were plenty of Sand Martins feeding over the water, a couple of Yellow Wagtails showed on the dryer areas and a Kingfisher flew close by over the pub car park. The local Lapwings had at least one chick. This was followed by a couple of hours round the corner along Slaynes Lane, overlooking the Idle Washlands. Here there was a group of four Great Egrets while Common Terns showed well, some of them very close. Reed and Sedge Warblers were singing away along the ditches and Whitethroats and Reed Buntings were vocal too. The Black-headed Gull colony was much reduced from a trip here three years ago but, this time, we were happy to not to see any suffering from avian flu; other gulls included Lesser and Great Black-backs. There were a few Avocets and a single Ringed Plover. We noted 48 species at these two sites.

From here, we relocated to the Idle Valley Nature Reserve near Lound. We were lucky to get superb views of a Glossy Ibis before it flew out of view. Swifts, Sand Martins and Common Terns were much in evidence and a pair of Egyptian Geese had nine goslings. Three Buzzards, a Red Kite, one distant Hobby, a Kestrel and a Marsh Harrier were seen here, while from time to time we heard Cuckoo. As well as Pochards, Mallards, Gadwall and Tufted Ducks, there were up to seven Red-crested Pochards and three Teal. Great Crested Grebes were seen on most of the pits and scrapes. Cetti’s, Willow, Garden, Blackcap and Chiffchaff were added to the day’s list of warblers. And, to cap the day, most of us heard a Turtle Dove purring, which was also seen by a lucky few. The site total here was 58 species.

Fourteen were on the trip and we were fortunate to have generally decent weather and a day total of 67 species.

Rob and Jane Chapman