Thursday August 17 - the power of the east wind

 Last night's forecast was for a gentle south-easterly across most of the UK. Having been starved of birding time since the weekend I didn't need the added incentive to get to Morton Bagot, and I certainly felt quite optimistic.

For the first half hour it seemed birdless, but just as I was about to accept that south-easterlies aren't all they're cracked up to be I got onto a nice mixed warbler flock. About a dozen warblers included a Lesser Whitethroat and a Sedge Warbler, a real fillip.

There's a Lesser Whitethroat in there somewhere

A few metres further on things got even better. An egret in the pool field isn't unusual, but this one was. A Great White Egret was fishing in one of the tiny scrapes, my fourth here.

The Great White Egret

Inevitably it took flight shortly after spotting me, but came down again on the top pool shrouded from view by bulrushes. I considered walking round to the swing-gate from where I probably would have got a better view, but decided to tweet it out in case anyone else in the area wanted to see it.

Instead I strode on towards the flash field, and on arrival immediately spotted a wader which wasn't a Green Sandpiper. It turned out to be an adult Dunlin, my first of the year. Although I could see it reasonably well I decided to continue along the brook from the usual viewing place to try to get a better view from under the trees near the Kingfisher Pool.

Dunlin 

Even from here it was distant, largely screened by rushes, but eventually I managed a lucky shot. It was also clear that there were a lot more Teal than last time, I counted 24, but the Green Sandpipers were mostly hidden by grasses. After reaching a paltry tally of three, I noticed a much more speckled wader. It was a Wood Sandpiper, the first here since 2016. 

Although it was relatively close, the rushes made photographing it a huge challenge. Morton Bagot can be very hard work. After about thirty minutes it waded to a position where I could get a couple of clear shots.

Wood Sandpiper

I suspect that there were more Green Sandpipers and Lapwings out of view, but one more wader species but in an appearance, a Snipe which called as it took off. Goodness knows how many more of them may be skulking out of view.

Two Little Egrets and a Grey Heron brought the heron species total up to three. I headed back via the pool field, but noticed that some walkers had just come down the footpath so I wasn't surprised when the Great White Egret was nowhere to be seen.

Little Egret

Back at Netherstead I could see two birders' cars. I hope they were successful.

PS: Mike Inskip tells me he saw the Wood Sand this afternoon eventually and also eight Green Sandpipers and six Snipe.