Sandpipers and Gulls!

10/08/14

It's not very often I respond quickly to news of a scarce bird appearing, thats just not my style. So after a morning thrashing the patch finding nothing out of the ordinary, the decision was taken to head over to Upton Warren on the way back to my Dudley home. Only a small diversion.

The reason being a juvenile Wood Sandpiper had been found, and it didn't take long before this  stunning wader was feeding and showing well in the delta not far from the hide. It spent much of it's time out of view on the back of the channels but when it did come out, its speckled white mantle and flight feathers  gleamed in the evening sunshine. Bliss.

An added bonus was the appearance of two juvenile Mediterranean Gull's which spent the evening side by side feeding and preening on one of the islands on the flashes. It was great to see them strutting their stuff in the same scope view which allowed for plumage differences to be scrutinized, and it became obvious that one of the birds was metal ringed. Sadly not a Darvec and therefore it was impossible to read it from that distance, meaning we will never know where it came from.

 

 

 

12 Green Sandpipers remained, as did 3 Common Sandpipers and small numbers of Curlew and Snipe were dotted around the flashes.

MB