Burton Mere RSPB- The rare Trio! (10/09/14)

September often brings up a a good number of passage waders, so it wasn't a surprise to hear of a good build up of birds at Burton Mere RSPB, a place I have been only once before when I twitched the Buff-bellied Pipit earlier in the year.

A nice trio of scarce birds had been hanging around for some time, and so plans were arranged to head up there.

We had only walked to the visitor centre before our first target was seen, and the Cattle Egret was found as it sat on the islands among the Canada and Greylag Geese! I have only seen this species once in the UK (a flock of 4 near Slimbridge), so it was good to catch up with another!

Cattle Egret

There were a lot of people in the visitor centre though, so it didn't take much of a decision to head over to the IMF hide at the opposite end of the reserve to try to locate both of our next targets.

It is the flash here that has seen a large build up of wading birds, and it is fair to say I was impressed very quickly.

It didn't take long for the rather stunning juvenile Red-necked Phalarope to appear, and given some time, but bird swam closer, eventually feeding just the other side of the small reedbed! With the sun moving in the sky, the light got continually better, and the bird just looked even better!

Red-necked Phalarope

Red-necked Phalarope

Red-necked Phalarope

This also allowed for us to scan around as the birds were no longer in silhouette. By far the most common wader on the flash was Lapwing, with around 200, but it was more quality than quantity, and small numbers of desirable wader species kept appearing.

3 Curlew Sandpiper, 2 Little Stint, 5 Spotted Redshank, 7 Greenshank and 15 Ruff among the more common Redshanks and Black-tailed Godwits! A great mixed flock.

The 3rd and final target was soon picked out, and we were watching the Pectoral Sandpiper, and following a slight wait, the bird flew and landed on the island in front of the hide, giving superb views.

With the light now shining onto the birds, you really could see every plumage detail on each of the wader species, which made it all the more enjoyable!

Pectoral Sandpiper

Pectoral Sandpiper

The wider reserve also held a Whinchat, a Cetti's Warbler, as well as good numbers of Pintail, Shoveler and Teal among the other common wildfowl. A single Peregrine flew over, doing its very best to flush as many birds as possible!

All in all a very good visit to this reserve, and one I look forward to visiting again in the future!

MB

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

PEC- take 3

9/10/10
the PECTORAL sandpiper remained at upton warren flashes for its 3rd week, but like take 2, it remained at the back of the flash,
2 green sand
7 curlew
15 snipe
1 common gull
30c meadow pipit
MB

PEC- take 2

7/10/10
Upton warren
a BARNACLE GOOSE was on the sailing pool..

A single DUNLIN ( juv) was on the flashes, but the main star, the PECTORAL SANDPIPER remained, but plonked itself solely at the rear of the flashes, about as far as it could get, so was just a tiny dot, and no photos/videos.
a adult winter COMMON GULL flew into roost. but promptly flew off SE

also:

1 green sand

2 common sand

33 curlew

8 snipe

MB

FIRST YANK

25/09/10

upton warren flashes

ok well now well and truily behind with this so......

Matt had again offered to pick me up from earlswood to go and see the PECTORAL SANDPIPER that had taken up residence on the flashes.

we entered the hide and this is what greeted us, a stunning juv cracker, and i was actually really supprised by how small it was ( lifer- 211), i just about managed 2 mins of footage of this bird right below the hide when my camera bleeped and turned itslef off,

NO BATTERY,

but here is what i did get.

however the bird did a dissapering act after pottering about infront of the hide and wasent seen by my dad when he arrived alot later.

also:

3 green sand

1 common sand

33 curlew

5 snipe

1 YELLOW LEGGED GULL

MB