As predicted, it has rained and rained for the last two days. This morning it was still drizzling, but was forecast to stop by late morning. How late though? After a couple of "what shall we do?" phone conversations with Dave I opted to stay at home and he decided to return to Marsh Lane GP for the second day running.
By early afternoon I was thoroughly fed up of watching West Brom lose again, and decided on a new plan. Horrible though the weather is, it had been dropping Common Scoters and Rock Pipits onto various reservoirs in the Midlands. Salford Priors GP looked a good bet, and Morton Bagot didn't.
I arrived in cloudy conditions and spotted a Stonechat on the hedge by my car straight away. Better than that, in the distance I could see an expanse of floodwater. Very encouraging. I found a way onto the site and set up my scope to look at what is now a muddy prairie. A Peregrine was standing in the middle of it, and nearby were lots of geese, Greylags and Canadas. But hang on a minute, there was something different with them, in fact four somethings. They were Pink-footed Geese, surely wild ones. I scrambled for my camera but then couldn't find them. Geese were flying to the flooded pit, had they joined them?
They had, and I spent an awful lot of time trying to get a record shot. The problem was that they were intent on washing all that gloopy mud off themselves and so were constantly preening. In the end these were my best efforts.
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| Four Pink-footed Geese plus a Greylag and a Canada |
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| Definitely two P F Geese, possibly three |
I tried walking around the back of the pit to get the sun behind me, while I texted Neil D, on whose patch I was adventuring. It turned out he was in Norfolk (and given the recent National news I couldn't blame him). At first Neil thought that Jon B, who had been here this morning hadn't seen them, but it later transpired that he had. So no glory.
The Pink-footed Geese became nervous as I made my way around and all four took off and returned to the fields, greatly enhancing their wild credentials. Like all geese they are prone to escape from collections and tempt patch watchers to tick them. These birds were the real deal.
I headed away from the pit and started scanning the distant (very distant) floodwater. I immediately spotted a long billed wader and hurried to a better spot. From here I could see two Greenshank and a Dunlin. At this point Neil texted back with Jon's full list, and it was long. The stand out was a Knot, the second record for the site. It's been more years than I would like to admit since I last saw a Knot, so I was very keen to see it. Three hours later I had to admit defeat. If it was still here, I couldn't find it.
During the course of those hours, a third Greenshank dropped in, and the Peregrine got onto the tail of a party of Teal I had inadvertently flushed. To my relief they all escaped.
I suppose I had the option of marching into the field to try to get closer, but I didn't want to do that. Instead I settled for perfectly acceptable scope views, and utterly terrible record shots.
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| Three Greenshanks and a Dunlin (honest) |
Among the other birds Jon had recorded was a Rock Pipit. Even with the scope I felt I had no chance. I could see plenty of Meadow Pipits, and at least 50 Pied Wagtails, but if there was a Rock Pipit among them I was going to miss it. Instead, I managed to spot a Wheatear, not on Jon's list. Hah!
As I wandered back I counted four Wigeon on the pit, and saw plenty of Little Grebes, Shovelers, and Tufted Ducks among the numerous Mallard, Teal, Canada Geese, and Greylag Geese all of which Jon had seen in greater quantities.
Back at the road a final vestige of summer was a party of eight Swallows which flew north. You're going the wrong way!
I have to admit that Salford Priors is a lot more exciting than Morton Bagot, but your patch is your patch, and I'll be back on it tomorrow.
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