Odd wader

Out at 06:10 at Ron's barely sat down 5 minutes scanning the East shore and this tiny wader took my attention. I say tiny because it was near LRP and was about the same size.

It was very buff coloured on the head, thru to it's belly, white along the side of the buff belly, not especially long looking wings, black looking legs, rather short black bill, dark feather in scaps, pale fringed. Apart from that it was 300+ metres away and hard to see much else.

I watched it and decided it could be a stint, or a 'peep sp' meaning unknown, so called Trev and we talked about the various peeps, next I called Brian and he got down pretty quick. We watched it for over an hour til I had to go.

Returning 09:40, it hadn't moved much and the belief started to lean towards and extremely small Dunlin juvenile.

The two with other waders show how small it was, the last two shots were taken a lot closer but annoyingly I couldn't see over the nearby vegetation. As it shows there were white 'tram lines' along the edge of the mantle, the bill was very short for Dunlin.

Nearest I could find on plumage was this Dunlin, but on size comparisons?

http://pewit.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/ringed-plover-dunlin-sanderling.html

Also present was the juvenile Yellow Wagtail, 2 Green, 2 Common Sand and 2 LRP.

90's July

And I'm not talking about the year....

I arrived usual sort of time 06:10 at LFGP, hide left insecure lock on but gate open, not very clever whom ever did that, as you can the lock on the did it not occur to their subconscious brain what am I locking here?

Peering out mum and foal Roe deer on the shingle island, don't see that every day, terns and BH Gulls were not happy.

I began scanning and quickly found a summer plumage Dunlin, which we usually get 4 out of 5 years in July. then something small next to 2 Common Sandpiper had me guessing for a second, I stared and the penny dropped, this pale yellow bird turned and I realised it was a juvenile Yellow Wagtail, very uncommon in July, the first since 2006.

These two and Geoff's Snipe 2 days ago put us on 90 for July, = 3rd place with 2014, 1 more to match 2015, 4 more to equal 2013's first place.

And with species like Redshank, Greenshank, Little Grebe, Peregrine, Yellow-legged, Common, or Med Gull and Linnet all good candidate additions, we might again break a month record.

The SW corner is still looking great, about 2" more water now, but still perfect for goodies like Wood Sandpiper, Whimbrel, Ruff, Garganey, or a Spoonbill???

Blackie

At 06:10 I'd barely been in the hide 5 minutes and was photographing the 2 Mandarin, when something made me look out and up, a fast flapping narrow and medium sized bird was heading directly in from the East, it turned, big white and black wing bars revealing Black-tailed Godwit, it was about 200 ft up and turned toward the NE corner, but wasn't dropping, it turned again and kept going North and away.

5 LRP back, probably the same birds, 1 Common, 1 Green Sandpiper, a Sparrowhawk prowling for a lucky Sand Martin.

Back at Lavell's a Garden Warbler perched in view near the benches, Bullfinch are around in numbers, so must have a had a good breeding season, the Barn Owl arrived and tried to entice of of the bigger chicks out, no luck...another day then.

What will the rain bring??

Oops

I want to say sorry for not posting over the last 10 days, I hadn't realised just how much time had gone by since my last post, what with running WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook accounts, it does all get a bit much.

If I haven't posted here, it's worth a look at the FOLL Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/1662435990723770/

Or even follow us on Twitter, but it's not for urgent bird news, just general 'stuff'
https://twitter.com/FOLLLatestNews

Anyway, after posting 'waiting for waders' it began the next day with a July Ringed Plover, always nice. It went on to stay til 7th, 7 days being the second longest ever stay and we have to go back to Sept 15th 1984 to find a longer staying (juvenile) bird, til 30th in fact.

3-6 LRP's have been seen, 1 to 3 Green Sandpiper, with 4 on the 9th, 4 Common Sandpiper yesterday too, all on Lavell's old Tern island.

As with other July's Little Egrets have begun gathering, 3 at first, then 4 on 8th, 8 later that day and again today.

1-2 Mandarin have showed up again, presumably 1 or both are from the family seen last month, the Sand Martins are doing great, 50+ birds seen from 2nd, possibly second broods in the making.

Out of season ducks have been on offer, 1-3 Teal for a few days, 1-2 Shoveler the same, Steve found 5 Pochard on Sandford on the 6th only. Even the adult Cuckoo seen yesterday was great, rare for adult this late, just 3 folks got to see that.

The main attraction has been the Barn Owls, 4 chicks in the box are about to fledge any moment.

I'm still waiting for a Black-tailed Godwit!!!