The journey there was lovely, clear traffic, clear skies and a beautiful Red Kite low over the A1. I arrived at the Birdwatching Centre and was very thankful of the small car - tight car park! But what great facilities they have there! So many hides and a fantastic shop, visitor and education centre.
Anyway, birds! So I found out that the White-Rumped Sandpiper was usually around Lapwing hide - why do these birds always insist on residing as far away from the visitors centre as they can? I set off in a determined manor thinking I will see this bird and then enjoy a leisurely explore, as I have heard it put "Now that's the twitching done, lets do some birdwatching!". When I walked into Lapwing Hide I was greeted by an array of telescopes, thousands of waterfowl and a very bright sun making silhouettes of everything. After a little while listening to people who knew much more than me identifying dark shapes the hide began to empty as the general consensus spread that it wasn't there. All of a sudden, just as I was packing up, a man arrived and announced that it was right in front of Dunlin Hide.
Of I walked again at a determined pace, perhaps this time a more determined pace, again saying to myself "I will visit all these other hides when I've caught up with this irritating little bugger". I walked into Dunlin Hide and scanned around without any luck and after enquiring established that just before I arrived it had been flushed by a Sparrowhawk and nobody knew where it went.
"Ok, this isn't meant to be" was my decision at this point. I stayed and watched a great show from a few hundred Golden Plover, who were very nervous - presumably after the aforementioned Sparrowhawk - wheeling around in the sky before eventually actually departing presumably to either rest or eat somewhere else.
After watching this unfold I felt a new enthusiasm and decided to take another walk to Lapwing Hide to see if the lighting had improved. To my delight it had indeed improved and after a few negative scans through a couple of flocks of Dunlin by the resident birders the call went out that the Sandpiper was in a flock of about a dozen Dunlin in front of the hide. I had a good scan and managed to identify a bird which was slightly smaller and had a generally longer body shape than the accompanying Dunlin. It turned and was briefly lit perfectly showing both the white eye-stripe and slightly streaked flanks.
This rather appalling photo is the best I could get. It is the bird on the left but the photo has been so heavily cropped that most of it's details are lost. All it's really good for is a size comparison between the Sandpiper, the Ringed Plover and the Dunlin.
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| Left to Right: White-Rumped Sandpiper, Ringed Plover, Dunlin |
So the day reverted to the original plan of just having a relaxed stroll around the rest of the hides (at least the hides to the north of the visitor centre). It is a really great reserve with so much to see! The final hide I visited, which name escapes me, brought my other highlight of the day - a Kingfisher. It wasn't a close view, but I always love seeing those little flashes of Blue darting around and if they perch it is a bonus.
All-in-all I had a great visit and saw 57 species despite not seeing some common place species which I'm sure I could have found without too much effort. I will definitely be going back for another visit, may be for the Ospreys next Spring if not before.
A slight dampener was the remaining journey back to Birmingham which was a constant stream of irritating traffic and took much longer than it should have. Can't win them all!
Oh, and the American Wigeon was nowhere to be found. Oh well, don't want to see everything too soon, wont be anything left to see...
