Sunday August 11 - All's well that ends well

 The quest for a decent bird started with despair at Morton Bagot on a drizzly Thursday morning. Cattle have been released into the scrape field so I moved on to the nearest flash, only to find that it was virtually dry. Some wet mud in the middle harboured a few Pied Wagtails and an optimistic Teal.

The furthest flash was just viewable with a scope and did at least contain the first two Common Snipe of the autumn.

The Kingfisher Pool looks increasingly likely to be on its way to being a fishing pool. A single Cormorant was obviously having the same thoughts.

I also saw five Stonechats on the walk back.

This morning I was joined by Dave in much warmer conditions. The stockman arrived and wound down the window of his Land Rover for a chat. He mentioned having heard a Redshank on Friday. Our jaws dropped, and he admitted it could have been a Greenshank. 

Suitably encouraged, we made our way round. We soon found two Green Sandpipers, two Little Egrets, and five Stonechats on the scrapes. Scanning the furthest flash we located the two Snipe, and a few Lapwings which relocated to the nearest flash. That at least had a puddle in the middle of it.

Although that was the end of the morning's birding, it wasn't the end of the story.

Back home I got a mid-afternoon text from Mike. He'd flushed a Greenshank at Middle Spernal. He thought it might have gone to a small pool beyond and agreed to wait for me.

Things got complicated. On my way there I saw John Chidwick driving past, and managed to let him know about the bird after I caught up with him at a service station. Unfortunately he didn't know the site so I tried to give him directions.

I drove on, and joined Mike. To cut a long story slightly shorter, we found the bird on the small pool.

Greenshank

Mike had to leave, but I needed to find John who had arrived and was lost. Eventually I found him and led him to the bird. A Kingfisher was a site tick, but two Green Sandpipers were more expected.

Needless to say I got lost on the walk back and stumbled back to my car a hot and sweaty mess, but at least I'd got the bird.