Got to East Tilbury post childcare in time to join the group of birders who had just seen the KP fly upriver. Wandered upriver to try and track it down and, while picking up 4 Curlew Sand plus a bunch of usuals (2 godwit spp, RPs, Dunlin, Avocet, etc) couldn't relocate the plover. Spent quite a few hours here but eventually gave up as the tide moved further and further out and headed off to Vange where a Red necked Phalarope had been around for the last few days. The place is a bit of a bugger to find but it's a brilliant site. The easiest thing to do is park in Wat Tyler in the first car park through the gates. head back up the road over the level crossing and turn left down a footpath opposite the station car park (and alongside White's Aggregates). turn left when you get to the start of the overpass, back over the railway line then go right until you can see the scrape ahead. There's a path that runs round it with occasional viewing mounds. The initial scan turned up an imm Spoonbill, 4 Dunlin an ad Little Stint, 3 Greenshank, several Green Sand, 11-12 Spotshank (including 10 all together), but no sign of the phalarope. Moving onto the next viewing mound and scanning around another group of birders turn up who've been watching it from the other side of the scrape - looks like it's in the north east corner. Another birder on the mound quickly picks it up - a really smart juv RN Phalarope swimming around - bit distant but the usual unidentifiable digiscope shots possible. (TBC)
Sunday, 29 August 2010
Thames Waderfest
The plan for today is have a pootle around a number of Thames sites to pick up a bunch of waders for the year. On offer are Curlew Sand, Little Stint, Wood Sand, a Pec, Red necked Phalarope and a KP. Throw in the usual stuff and we could be talking about 20 species of waders in a day (and six year ticks). Since I spent my formative birding years next to the Thames and weaned by Redshanks I do have a soft spot for waders. While my British List is pretty meagre, waders do feature quite strongly and, while missing quite a few goodies (no Short billed runt Curlew for instance) it has its highlights (courser on the local patch, hat tricks of pratincoles and lapwings, all the peeps except Long toed, PGP when it wasn't a trash bird, Sharp tailed and Stilt Sands and one of the few real blockers on my list: Little Whimbrel Curlew.
Got to East Tilbury post childcare in time to join the group of birders who had just seen the KP fly upriver. Wandered upriver to try and track it down and, while picking up 4 Curlew Sand plus a bunch of usuals (2 godwit spp, RPs, Dunlin, Avocet, etc) couldn't relocate the plover. Spent quite a few hours here but eventually gave up as the tide moved further and further out and headed off to Vange where a Red necked Phalarope had been around for the last few days. The place is a bit of a bugger to find but it's a brilliant site. The easiest thing to do is park in Wat Tyler in the first car park through the gates. head back up the road over the level crossing and turn left down a footpath opposite the station car park (and alongside White's Aggregates). turn left when you get to the start of the overpass, back over the railway line then go right until you can see the scrape ahead. There's a path that runs round it with occasional viewing mounds. The initial scan turned up an imm Spoonbill, 4 Dunlin an ad Little Stint, 3 Greenshank, several Green Sand, 11-12 Spotshank (including 10 all together), but no sign of the phalarope. Moving onto the next viewing mound and scanning around another group of birders turn up who've been watching it from the other side of the scrape - looks like it's in the north east corner. Another birder on the mound quickly picks it up - a really smart juv RN Phalarope swimming around - bit distant but the usual unidentifiable digiscope shots possible. (TBC)
Got to East Tilbury post childcare in time to join the group of birders who had just seen the KP fly upriver. Wandered upriver to try and track it down and, while picking up 4 Curlew Sand plus a bunch of usuals (2 godwit spp, RPs, Dunlin, Avocet, etc) couldn't relocate the plover. Spent quite a few hours here but eventually gave up as the tide moved further and further out and headed off to Vange where a Red necked Phalarope had been around for the last few days. The place is a bit of a bugger to find but it's a brilliant site. The easiest thing to do is park in Wat Tyler in the first car park through the gates. head back up the road over the level crossing and turn left down a footpath opposite the station car park (and alongside White's Aggregates). turn left when you get to the start of the overpass, back over the railway line then go right until you can see the scrape ahead. There's a path that runs round it with occasional viewing mounds. The initial scan turned up an imm Spoonbill, 4 Dunlin an ad Little Stint, 3 Greenshank, several Green Sand, 11-12 Spotshank (including 10 all together), but no sign of the phalarope. Moving onto the next viewing mound and scanning around another group of birders turn up who've been watching it from the other side of the scrape - looks like it's in the north east corner. Another birder on the mound quickly picks it up - a really smart juv RN Phalarope swimming around - bit distant but the usual unidentifiable digiscope shots possible. (TBC)
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