Sunday, September 28, 2008

West is Best?

Well, today it was...

ADMc and myself took a trip out to Campfield Marsh on the Solway Firth today so that I could catch up with the fw Stilt Sandpiper that has been here since last Monday. When I was in Cornwall, I was a bit gutted to hear that this lifer for me was only about 100 miles from home and being seen by all of my mates. Andy saw it on Wednesday but came back with me for seconds.





Above - at first we could hardly find the pool for fog let alone the bird...



...then the heat haze became a problem...



So hopefully if you combine the three images above you'll get a feeling of what it looked like.

I like waders and was well impressed by this lanky tringa imposter as it strode around its pool loosly associating with a couple of Black tailed Godwits. I think this is about the 26th record for the UK. A cracking bird.

No such luck down at Boulmer where 2 Curlew Sandpipers, 10 Black tailed and 11 Bar tailed Godwits and 4 Wheatears where the highlights.

Still, that was my third British tick this year and there's time for more. Fingers crossed.

British List - 389 Stilt Sandpiper.

Boulmer Year List - 130 Curlew Sandpiper .

5 comments:

darrell j prest said...

bloody hell! we have posted the same thing!sort of,your's is better than mine.what time were you there?

Stewart said...

We got there at 9.30 and left shortly after 11. We could have had a chat...

No mines not better than yours, just different. Your post is hilarious!

abbey meadows said...

Nice picture there Stew. Cornwall holiday looks nice. Been meanimg to go down there sometime but the distance puts me off. However, it took us eight hours to drive back from Skye; with a couple of generous stops.

Stewart said...

Hello Nigel, the drive back from the north of Scotland is much easier due to the lighter traffic etc ( I've done both quite a bit as you know).The bother with the south is that we just aren't used to the volume of traffic on the motorways near the large cities. That haul back home on Friday was the hardest drive I think I've ever done! I couldnt do it very often...

abbey meadows said...

I agree Stew. It's always quite pleasurable driving in Scotland. We pulled off the road near Glen coe to watch a Golden Eagle and we always call in to see Heather's relatives in the Linlithgow area so time is not really an issue. Motorway driving is much more monotonous.