Saturday July 7 - This afternoon I was lounging in front of the telly watching England stuff the Aussies at cricket, when I glanced at my pager as it flashed a message at me. Black-tailed Godwit at Morton Bagot. It is fair to say I was off like a shot, stuffing my sketch book into my bag and phoning non pager owners as I left the house.
I arrived to find the whole area sodden after Friday's rain, but thankfully soon saw the unmistakable sight of a summer plumaged Black-tailed Godwit feeding up to its haunches in the middle of the second flash.
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| sketches of Black-tailed Godwit |
John arrived to tell me that he had met the finder, John Chidwick, as he was leaving. I believe John mainly birds around Earlswood, but is evidently frequently here on a Saturday afternoon. Thank goodness he put his find on the pager.
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| Black-tailed Godwit |
It was such a lovely bird I couldn't resist doing a colour version of one of the sketches when I got home. It was a locality tick for me, my list now 137. There has been one previous record I know of, involving a bird seen last March by Alan Smith.
The higher water levels meant that I could only see one Green Sandpiper, but a look at the pool confirmed the continued presence of the female Tufted Duck and her brood of eight ducklings. On the way back to my car I worked out the location of the Spotted Flycatchers' nest high in the corner of the barn as the parents continued to feed their brood of fledglings.
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