return of the sandpipers

27/06/09

at earlswood the goldcrests were back in the pine tree but always stayed all the way at the top.at the bottom of the garden there is a apple tree and in this tree there was a male feeding a juvinile bullfinch.not a bad bird with the only area i regulary record them been upton warren where i will now go.....

upton warren

straight to the flashes today.the greylag family is still on the sailing pool and giving great views.but as usual not much else was there but we did count 4 g c grebes.

at the hen pool there was a family of l t tits.at the feeder hide a bullfinch called but did not show.the first bird i noted was the green sandpipers.a stunning flock of 11 already,this early in the year.but this is what upton warren is known for.

2 black tailed godwits were feeding at the back of ther flash near where the phalarope was(bit of a name dropper for the godwit i think)the views were good but distant.both the birds are in bright brick red summer plumage(almost on the verge of the icelantic race)

the bright red things behind the mallard are the godwits:

after asking if anything else was about i was greeted with the amazing news that 3 little ringed plovers had hatched only 40 mins before we arived(well 2 hatched then and one earlier in the day)and were already scurrying around,but they were sooooooooooo tiny.they were about half the size of the adults.thats even cuter than a newly hatched mallard.no pics were good(but atempted)and they are just a blury fuzz.

the curlews were back in force this week with a maximum count of 30 at around 10:10 pm.

so were the lapwings with a count of 36.much higher than the last few months.

a pair of common terns were giving good views on the nest with a prospective pair visiting a nearby island.

the avocets are still going strong and giving great views:

quite good for me aint it

and this video that ive named 'were all young'

highlights are:

10 greylag

2 gadwall

7 teal

13 avocet

7 lrp+3 young

36 lapwing

11 green sandpiper

2 black-tailed godwit

30 curlew

4 common tern(nest pair+prospective pair)

10c stock dove(there everwhere)

1 lesser whitethroat

4 sedge warbler

10c reed warbler

2 linnet

1 bullfinch

3 reed bunts

i met the person from the day i saw the ruff again and we had a long conversation about random stuff like the youtube video called spiders on drugs' which is quite funny but not for anybody above the age of 40(thats my guess anyway).this bloke is proppa safe and a plessure to meet again.he told me about when one time he made a huge mistake and identified a redshank.but when showing it to sombody he realised it was a bottle,gulp.huge bummer.i think if he reads this blog then i could be in some serious harsh words for mentioning this but,im sorry it is funny.

MB