Curlew Sandpiper

It wasn't just teeming with rain at Black Hole Marsh this morning -  it was teeming with wading birds too!

I've lost count at the number of times I've praised rain on this blog, but it really does makes all the difference. There was a perfect example of this this morning, at 06:15 there were 35 Dunlin on Black Hole Marsh, five hours later there were at least double that! And they were feeding all over the place, not just in one or two tight flocks - looked amazing!

My reason for the second visit was because Mr White spied our first Curlew Sandpiper of the year drop in at around 8am. We often don't see them here til September when the juveniles arrive, although saying that the epic flock of 15 in 2013 arrived in August (right at the end of it though). Tim also reported four Turnstone and a Sanderling - the latter our first of the autumn.

Being early August I was expecting to see a nice red Curlew Sandpiper, but it was surprisingly pale with only slight remnants of summer plumage...

A Greenshank, two Cattle Egrets and six redhead Goosander (first seen yesterday morning by Ian Mc) were also on Black Hole Marsh at 06:15.

It's also worth mentioning that today is the one year anniversary of the Least Sandpiper! Well not for me, that's tomorrow, but Tim Wright first found it on the 2nd. I wonder what this year's autumn Black Hole rarity/ies will be...