I have had a very tiring few days!
On Friday night at half ten I drove from Seaton to Plymouth, and was up for 8am the following morning. I stayed in Plymouth until half 11 on Saturday night, then drove back to Seaton and got in to bed at 1am. At 6am this morning I was awake for work at 7. Finished work at half 4 this afternoon and came home for a relaxing night... or so I was hoping for......
At 18:12 I wandered down to Black Hole Marsh to see if the Curlew Sandpiper and three Little Stints were there from earlier. The first bird I saw was a Sandpiper which had walked around the corner into view....
Hmmmm....something didn't like right!!! There wasn't a Green Sand in sight - and this bird just wouldn't flash its arse or call! Not to help matters it was getting dark - rapidly!
At about twenty past I'd seen enough to put the news out locally of a 'probable Solitary Sand'.
At about half past, as the first local arrived (Ian Mc) two Green Sands flew in and joined it! SH*T THE BED - it IS a Solitary Sand!!!! It just looked so obvious now!
Once all the avaliable locals had arrived (five of us in total), I felt we NEEDED to see its rump for the BBRC, just in case it did/does do a bunk over night - so i 'encouraged' it to fly, which was bloody hard work! It flew about ten feet and showed what we thought it would :-)
We continued watching the bird until it was literally pitch black, it was feeding happily roughly in the same spot as where I first found it.
All directions are on the Devon Bird News Blog, as are a couple of crappy photos and a rubbish video clip. I'll post the pics here too though, plus one more...
EPIC!!!!
On Friday night at half ten I drove from Seaton to Plymouth, and was up for 8am the following morning. I stayed in Plymouth until half 11 on Saturday night, then drove back to Seaton and got in to bed at 1am. At 6am this morning I was awake for work at 7. Finished work at half 4 this afternoon and came home for a relaxing night... or so I was hoping for......
I really did feel like total crap, and was ready for a very VERY early night - I have work again at 6:30am! But it was such a beautiful evening I just HAD to go out! Why not....
At 18:12 I wandered down to Black Hole Marsh to see if the Curlew Sandpiper and three Little Stints were there from earlier. The first bird I saw was a Sandpiper which had walked around the corner into view....
Hmmmm....something didn't like right!!! There wasn't a Green Sand in sight - and this bird just wouldn't flash its arse or call! Not to help matters it was getting dark - rapidly!
At about twenty past I'd seen enough to put the news out locally of a 'probable Solitary Sand'.
At about half past, as the first local arrived (Ian Mc) two Green Sands flew in and joined it! SH*T THE BED - it IS a Solitary Sand!!!! It just looked so obvious now!
Once all the avaliable locals had arrived (five of us in total), I felt we NEEDED to see its rump for the BBRC, just in case it did/does do a bunk over night - so i 'encouraged' it to fly, which was bloody hard work! It flew about ten feet and showed what we thought it would :-)
We continued watching the bird until it was literally pitch black, it was feeding happily roughly in the same spot as where I first found it.
All directions are on the Devon Bird News Blog, as are a couple of crappy photos and a rubbish video clip. I'll post the pics here too though, plus one more...
EPIC!!!!This is the moment us patch birders wake up for....or in my case today - don't go to sleep for! Result!!! I just hope the currently off patch - patch birders get back before it goes.... PLEASE STAY BIRD!!!
Great find Steve! What a cracker! Gav must have choked on his tea and scones when news of that filtered through to Scilly!
ReplyDeleteHi Col, many thanks!
ReplyDeleteI just hope it stays one more week for his return!
Brilliant find, Steve. I drove 460miles round trip from Cheshire y/day - wot a bird, worth every mile!! Thanks :) Paul 'Doc' Brewster
ReplyDelete