Tuesday 26 November 2013

Public transport twitching

2/10/13

Agggh!
Don't you just hate it!
I do, i hate public transport.

But anyway, following an unusually smooth journey via a bus, and then a train, and then a short period of walking, me and the Gornal birder arrived at Doxey Marshes in Stafford to look for the Yank wader found the previous day.
After some walking around the site not knowing where to go we eventually saw the usual 'congregation' of birders that accompanies a rare bird and headed to that point.
With no news having emerged from the site that day we weren't sure if the bird was still on site, but we were relieved to hear that the bird had been seen briefly earlier that morning, but it was very elusive in among the vegetation.
It took some time, and we were in site for most of the afternoon, but we eventually had decent views as it worked its way along the rear shore of the flash. PECTORAL SANDPIPER is a species i have only caught up with once before, that being the long staying bird at Upton Warren a few years ago so it was nice to see another of these American waders.



The bird spent most of its time associating with Common Snipe, just as my last bird did, however, just as i had been told, the bird spent most of its time hiding in among the vegetation. Interestingly, a 'Pec' had been seen at this site a few weeks before on a Snipe count. This raises the question had the bird just been there all along but its elusive nature meaning it hadn't been seen.





Other than the Pec, i was left fairly impressed by the site, 3 Barnacle Goose were showing from a hide and waders were represented by a single Green Sandpiper, 2 Ruff and probably around 50 Snipe.


MB

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