The news this morning was good, and I set off in heavy rain at about 09.45. By the time I arrived the rain had stopped. I made my way to the main hide at the flashes, which as expected contained a forest of tripod legs and birders. I sat down and duly saw the bird. It was at the far edge of the flash, about the same distance away as the nearest flash is at Morton Bagot. Too distant for my camera to produce any half decent shots.
Fortunately I am quite happy to settle for exhibiting rubbish record shots, so here they are.
Things to note are the short bill, spangled brown and white pattern on the wing coverts and mantle, and in particular the very long rear-end caused by the primary feathers extending much further than the tip of the tail.
I decided to go into the lower hide, which proved to contain just three other birders. This allowed me time to let my attention to wander to the other birds on the flashes. I counted a minimum of 75 Teal, 62 Shovelers, two Common Sandpipers, two Avocets, and a Kingfisher. I also had a brief binoculars-only view of what appeared to be a Wheatear perched on a post. Annoyingly it had disappeared by the time I switched to my scope.
The walk back took in lots of passerines in the bushes including Lesser Whitethroat, Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs, and several vocal Cetti's Warblers.
It was almost as enjoyable to catch up with birders I haven't seen for years, including John Belsey who gave me the story from initial discovery of the bird by a lady who knew it was something worth calling John about, through some delegated birding mates who worked out it wasn't a Little Stint and after considering every calidrid in existence (I may be exaggerating here) came to a tentative, but correct, identification. John himself had to change his plans to get down there in fading light to confirm their suspicions.
Well done to all concerned.
No comments:
Post a Comment