Wood Sands and Pochard

Just a quick one to bring everything up to date, and since my last post the only real action I have to report is from last Thursday.

With an apparent influx of Wood Sandpipers across the country mid-last week thanks to rain and easterly winds, I was hopeful we'd get one here at some point.  They are a tricky species to see here in spring though, if we get any they are usually brief, and actually they've not been much easier in autumn in recent years!  So when I heard of four feeding on Black Hole Marsh from late morning Thursday, this sorted my after work plans for that day. All four still present and looking splendid in their breeding plumage at 5:30pm...

Three Wood Sands phone-scoped

The fourth loner

About an hour later Tim messaged with news of two probable Pochard flying around the valley - thankfully exactly the part of the valley I can see over from my bedroom window!  And soon after I started scanning, two grey plain-winged ducks with contrasting breast bands and pale bellies came flying in and dropped out of view.  Over the course of the evening I saw them several more times in flight from the house - two female Pochard.  A dead tidy Patchwork Challenge tick, although they have returned to being annual over the last five years despite their continued decline in the south west.

Scores on the doors for Patchwork Challenge at the end of April for me were 146 species and 194 points.  Really need some good spring sea watching although it is looking less and less likely as we get nearer to mid May. Oh and Common Crane is still omitted... for now...