I fancied a day off today. Or to be more accurate, an hour or two outside the Circle. Yesterday I had noticed the words Sanderling appearing next to the words Upton Warren on Birdguides. I'd just got back from Morton Bagot, and I was tempted. But in the end the cricket won out, and I settled down to watch Joe Root almost singlehandedly win the match for England.
This morning there was news it was still there. I hadn't seen a Sanderling for a year or two, and at least it wouldn't be a dot on the far shore at Upper Bittell. I decided it was time. Sanderling is a high arctic resident, and perhaps this bird was still heading that way. For the rest of the year it is almost strictly coastal, but happily for Midland birders a few drop onto the shores of suitably large reservoirs every spring. They are strangely scarcer in the autumn.
The bird was on the Flashes (I hadn't been there for a while either), so I ambled over, ascended the steps to the main hide and plopped myself down to scan for the bird. It turned out to be pretty close.
After a while it disappeared behind the small island it was on, so I spent a happy half hour scanning around at the plethora birds also visible. At least 36 Avocets, 12 Shelducks, and quite a few Little Ringed Plovers. Like Morton Bagot on steroids.
Actually, not much like the patch. Cetti's Warblers shouted at me all the way down the track, a drake Pochard was with Tufted Ducks on the gravel pit, and Gadwalls jostled with Mallards on most of the pools.
It was hard to drag myself away. When I got home I wondered how long it had been since I'd last seen a Sanderling. The answer shocked me. Twenty years. I'd had an unbroken run of years seeing them from 1978 to 2005, and then none. Well if you will visit Morton Bagot and nowhere else, what do you expect?
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