Black Hole Marsh has been terrific at pulling in wading birds this autumn. Any spare time I've had in a morning or evening it's been hard to go anywhere but here! Well why would you when the potential is so vast!?
I managed to miss our (hopefully) first American wading bird of the autumn, with a Pectoral Sandpiper found by Tim late afternoon on 10th. It flew off a couple of hours later, which was a bit annoying as I managed the miss the equally brief bird Phil found 366 days before too!
I did see the second best wading bird of the autumn though, with a juvenile Spotted Redshank here for a couple of days from 7th. Unfairly scarce on the Axe now, especially considering the fact we used to have at least one wintering bird every year up until the early 2000's. The only view I had of this bird was distant and well after sunset, hence this appalling record shot...
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| Still identifiable - just! |
And now for some better footage! This morning Black Hole Marsh held a juvenile Little Stint, two juvenile Curlew Sandpipers, five juvenile Ruff and a Green Sandpiper. All of these species featuring in this little video clip...
Also in recent weeks we have had a couple of Knot, two different Bar-tailed Godwits, five or so Greenshank and up to 19 Ringed Plover. Not bad at all! Could do with more Dunlin though, numbers well down in general.
Non-wading bird highlights for me in the valley since my last post includes my first two Wigeon of the autumn on morning of 7th, a couple of fly-through Ospreys, up to 13 Cattle Egret seen daily and a lovely first-winter Yellow-legged Gull on the lower Estuary for several hours on 10th...
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| Phone-binned photo! Saw all the critical features including nice open wing views, but that body shape very typical of YLG. |
Looking forward to what else September brings...
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