purple patch

15/08/09

8am: awoke to the sweet jingling of a charm of goldfinch.a robin was tacking near the feeder,a 'yaffel' was laughing in a nearby tree,the high pitched 'see see' of begging young blue tits,a lone great tit was shouting for help 'teacher teacher'.the occasional honk of a passing goose flock(canada of cause)this is the sound i awake to in a mouning at my dads,and i will say,WHAT A SOUND TO WAKE UP TOO!!!

instead of turning on the tv like a NORMAL teenager i decided to stick my nose in one of my many bird books(had to be the colins bird guide),flicking through the pipits,i felt a viberation on the seat next to me, ah, a text.andy wouldent be up this early,and my friends dont oftern text me at this time,so that left brian with a rareity update,proberbly a med gull down at the flashes.

i opened the txt and died(then came back to life,cause i wouldent be wrighting this if i was dead,derr) male MONTAGU'S HARRIER flew over upton flashesflying NW at 7:40.to say my exact words would be wrong so i will include a cencored area

'S**T'

i grabbed my bins,told my dad i will be back soon and ran onto moorhall field this area gives the best viewing of the whole area and i waited,if it was to follow the river it will pass here.i know it is a long shot but as rob prudden said later that night at the flashes'it has to go somewhere'.

after a hour and a half i gave up hoping it would return to the flashes(or moors),but there was no other sign of this bird anywhere.so that's my day ruined,or was it.

later that day i was sitting in the car as my dad was mowing the lawn(i have nothing to do when he does the grass.anther viberation in my pocket was another txt from brian,was it the monties,no it bloody wasent,spotted crake from the west hide moors pool.run out to my dad show him the txt and after he finished the mowing i was on my way.i headed for the west hide,climbed the steps and there was nobody in the hide.i checked the log book and it said it was showing from the water rail hide,so i left my dad in the feeder hide(he waited before somebody called it and he would come down as he knew it would be cramped.a birder was walking towards the west hide and i just said 'the spotted crake is showing from the concrete hide.little did i know i was talking to andy warr(only just found out recently).we both squeezed into the hide,as i took up my position a birder asked if i wanted to see it.i said yeah and i sat on the bench.a birder next to me said its in the cut reeds where he was pointing i had a good view of it and went out to collect my dad.he came in and we watched it for about 30 mins untill it dissapeared into the reeds not having got any photos(because every time i got the camera on the bird someones head poped in the way.i decided to leave knowing there would be some pics on the net.the only other thing i noted in the hide was a juv water rail.and there was even less around the moors.

highlights here were

common duck species

1 water rail

1 spotted crake

(photo: pete walkden)

4 OYC

10c common tern

onto the flashes,on a high from the crake,i happily got out the car.on the south shoe of the sailing pool i saw a birder it often talk too runnin the opposite way(he owns a yellow vaxhall vx220 if it helps) having just heard of the crake at the moors.i havent saw him since then so i have no idea wheter it shown for him.i wished him luck and carried on.after taking my place i was guided onto a common gull(upton 1st for me).i got a few photos of him but he spent all his time asleap and only awoke twice briefly:

all the gulls flew up and it left a long billed wader standing in shallow water not far out in the flash.it was a black tailed godwit and much closer than any other birds ive seen(well untill 27/08/09),the wood sandpiper was still giving decent if distant views at the back of the flash,and joining the wood sand at the back were 9 snipe and a few green sands(and the usual BHG's)

highlights here are:

400c canada geese over(at very least)

200c lapwing

1 wood sand

10c green sand

4 common sand

1 B T godwit

42 curlew

9 snipe

800c BHG's

1 common gull

10c common tern

15c stock dove

MB