Sunday November 4 - a good bird at last

Cloudy with a few light drizzly showers, but mild with a light southerly.

The first hour of this visit was very pedestrian, and I had resorted to counting the small parties of Stock Doves heading east (the total was 80 in you're interested). A Stonechat was still present. We were surprised, and a little depressed, to see that the puddle at the pool had reduced considerably in volume.

Never fear, things started to pick up when we reached the flash field. On the right hand edge of the furthest flash I could just make out a wader with a small group of Teal. To our surprise it was the first Redshank of the year. A scope would have helped, but I'd left it in the car to spare my back.

Redshank (honest)

The fact that Redshanks failed to turn up this spring was unusual, but not as much as seeing a November Redshank here. Normally its March to July, and that's your lot.

We continued down the hedge and reached the spot where you are closest to the nearest flash. From here we established that the Redshank had disappeared. While trying to relocate it we counted 27 Teal, and three Snipe.

Then I noticed a small grey bird pottering about on the shore of the nearest part of the flash. At first I thought it was a wader, but quickly realised it was a Pipit. The strong white wing-bars and pale flanks suggested one species in particular. A Water Pipit. I called to Dave, and he got onto the bird and noticed a second bird was present. That was also a Water Pipit. With no scope available, my bridge camera proved its worth, and despite the poor light I got several confirmatory photographs.

Water Pipit

Truly terrible shot showing both birds

After peering into the back of the camera at the shots we looked up to find that the birds had disappeared. A few minutes later Dave saw two Pipits fly off before he lost them almost immediately behind the foliage we were standing under.

We backtracked to the puddle in case they had gone there, but could only find half a dozen Meadow Pipits. More thrushes had arrived, and we estimated 100 Redwings, 80 Fieldfares, and 200 Starlings. I also got a shot of the Stonechat as it was a lot more obliging than the Water Pipits.

Stonechat

I thought I was going to go through the whole year without a category A bird at Morton Bagot, so the Water Pipits have rescued the year from total ignominy.

Some later news came from Mike I. He was unfortunately unsuccessful in his attempt to see the Water Pipits, but did see a first-winter Common Gull (the first here since last winter) and also managed to flush two Jack Snipes from the sedge in front of the main pool (puddle). Again, these are the first of the autumn, in this case because I thought the area would be too dry so I haven't tried for them.