SHEEPWASH

26/03/10
rain had threatened to stop the visit but no matter what the weather we were hitting the 'wash'
from the north side of the lake i quickly pucked up a nice flock of 12 goosander swimming by dunlin(sand) island, we quickly headed further along the patch and stopped by a fence si i could lean my scope down. i quickly had a quick scan and produced ( 1 M, 8 F, 3 imm M),

in one scope view 3 goosander were sitting on the islands when a small wader popped out from behind the bank, 'LRP, got an LRP here andy'
'where, where'
' by the goosanders'
'which one'
' the female one'
'which one'
' for gawds sake, look through there' moveing my eye from the eyepiece. Our second LRP at sheepwash. whoop whooop, first summer migrant of the year.....................

but the bird suddenly jumped into the air at 3:18 and with a few circles of the lake flew off in a SE direction.

the r£$$y duck was still here.
a few GCB's were dotted around.

we moved on, praying for a wheatear on the mound, first a check of the chemical pool, and only 2 herrings were down with approx 30 LBBG.
moveing onto the mound along the canelside path, i saw a small bird jump from one branch to another,
maybe i was too quick to shout goldcrest but on raising my bins:



chiffchaff
we watched the bird as it moved up and down the tree, oftern flicking its tail downwards( a chiffie habit), we left the migrant to feed and moved onto the mound, despite having diggers working on one side. we had a quick scan, a few magpie but nothing else, another day perhaps.

then the rain came down, we headed to the small marsh pools nut nothing was on them so we left.
not a bad few hours i think........
MB