I knew there would be a fair chance of some hirundines on Saturday, the rain would surely bring them down. Out around 09:00 at LFGP, little was happening, a lone Redshank, 2 Skylark and the pair of Mandarin again on the Loddon near the green bridge.
Then out of the blue 2 Sand Martin appeared already gone past the hide and quickly onward North, shortly after Steve texted to say 10 more BSL, plus Swallow. So Brian, myself and Trevor left in hope of connecting.
The wind had got up and was actually quite cold, nonetheless not 10, but 16 Sand Martin were covering a wide area over BSL, but we could not locate the Swallow.
This was my 97th species for 2016, so banking on another Swallow, Blackcap and just one more in the next 2 days, I can hit 100 before March 31st.
My fastest to 100 year lists are 2012, 2013 and this year and to give an impression of comparison, they look like this;
2012
94 - Brambling 12th
95 - Blackcap 14th
96 - Chiffchaff 15th
97 - Garganey 20th
98 - Red Crested Pochard 26th
99 - Linnet 29th
100 - Sand Martin 30th.
2013
93 - Sand Martin 20th
94 - Redshank 20th
95 - Swallow 23rd
96 - Mandarin 23rd
97 - Peregrine 26th
98 - Garganey 29th
99 - Brambling 10th April
100 - Common Tern 11th April
2016
93 - Coal Tit 18th
93 - Redshank 18th
94 - Yellow-legged Gull 18th
95 - Meadow Pipit 22nd
96 - Merlin 25th
97 - Sand Martin 26th
2013 was flying, but I must have been busy, or something because of the break in the timeline of new birds.
I have a busy day today, but if I can get out for an hour very shortly, I will give myself a chance to catch up with Brian's first Blackcap today and maybe a Swallow? If not tomorrow despite the heavy rain forecast should still offer chances to beat 2012's number 1 spot.
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