Following on from Dave's post yesterday, my visit to the Gann earlier in the day had similar sightings with two Rock Pipits on the ridge. I checked my records on Birdtrack for the last six years and the reporting rate for just my records shows their scarcity in May and apparent absence in June at the Gann. I wonder why.
There was at least one Lesser Whitethroat in the car park scrub, singing at times, and chasing something at one point. A Common Whitethroat was neaby so may only have been that. It occasionally showed itself on top of the brambles:
There were at least two Reed Warblers in the nearby reeds and a Spotted Flycatcher behind the lime kilns. Otherwise it was pretty quiet, apart from those Whimbrels, but I did manage to spot a Common Sandpiper in a small creek up the river.
The local Ravens have managed to fledge three young. They were being fed by the parents on the marsh early in the day, but later on they were being left to forage for themselves with an adult supervising nearby and ignoring their pleas to be fed. Attempts at landing in the trees was a bit hit and miss, but two of them have found a convenient perch:
A male Kestrel appeared briefly over the car park and elsewhere it was reassuring to see a female on a traditional coastal nest.
At Marloes Mere in the late afternoon there were plenty of Swallows, probably over 40, with large groups occasionally resting on the wires or the brambles. There were at least five Sand Martins and one House Martin apparently feeding on the St Mark's flies and Mayflies and a single large unidentified dragonfly in the lane to the Oriole hide. The recently partially ploughed field nearby held at least six Wheatear and a few Pied Wagtails and might produce something rarer.