Tuesday 24 August 2010

A remarkable morning in the rain - Monday 23 August

This morning the weather really was miserable but this was more than made up for by the wader passage. I arrived a little later to allow the rain time to ease off and as I got out of the car David shouted “Whimbrel”, so I legged it up the steps to hear the two of them. After that events are a bit blurred. Snipe were flying around occasionally, 150+ Common Terns (with a few Arctic Terns), cams in and flew around. Four Black-tailed Godwits flew east to land at Startops, three more Whimbrel went east. A grey Red Knot flew around before heading east. Soon after David left a Bar-tailed Godwit circled calling and from the Wilstone Cemetery David managed to see it fly east. Soon after I could hear Greenshank calling and Mike Campbell saw at least three, but it was difficult to be exact because of the terns flying around high up.

Eventually I made it to the hide and was joined by Mike C and Lee. Garganey, Black-necked Grebe, the four returning Black-tailed Godwits and a Dunlin were the highlights from there. Mike Wallen also did well from Startops and no doubt will report on that later.

Adding in Lapwing and Common Sandpiper I saw nine species of wader this morning! I could have managed ten if I had gone to Startops (Roy Hargreaves)

In addition to all of this, the Common Redstart was still present in Hide Meadow (Jack O'Neill) and 3 LITTLE RINGED PLOVERS and 7 RED-CRESTED POCHARDS and 1 COMMON SWIFT were on Startop's End (Lee Evans)

No comments: