An excess of accrued flexi time came in handy this afternoon. I finished work at noon and ADMc and myself drove the hour south to sunny Teesside where the adult Sharp-tailed Sandpiper was on show straight away, poddling around the edge of Greatham Creek with the local Redshanks.
At scopable distance ( just as well as I had forgot my bins!) we watched for 10 minutes until a Peregrine fancied itself a chinese takeaway and piled into the birds. Luckily it was a half hearted effort and all remained unscathed. After a flight around, the bird landed in a closer position for good views for all of another five minutes before being coaxed off to high tide roost with the locals.
It was quite a distinctive bird, clearly taller and leggier than Pec Sand. A worn adult and not as dark or well marked as the ones we saw in China.
A nice addition to the list edging me ever closer to the 400 mark ( yes, I should get out more).
British List - 394
Blog posts have been scarce lately as I have been uploading my moth catches onto mapmate, a natural history database added to my pc. It'll make life much easier next year.
Last nights catch ( nicely in order, complete with latin names, thanks to mapmate) -
0819 Scrobipalpa costella 1
0873 Blastobasis adustella 1
1041 Acleris sparsana 1
1048 Garden Rose Tortrix (Acleris variegana) 2
1760 Red-green Carpet (Chloroclysta siterata) 1
1777 July Highflyer (Hydriomena furcata) 1
2107 Large Yellow Underwing (Noctua pronuba) 8
2109 Lesser Yellow Underwing (Noctua comes) 1
2126 Setaceous Hebrew Character (Xestia c-nigrum) 3
2134 Square-spot Rustic (Xestia xanthographa) 1
2264 Yellow-line Quaker (Agrochola macilenta) 1 NFY
2265 Flounced Chestnut (Agrochola helvola) 2
2266 Brown-spot Pinion (Agrochola litura) 4
2270 Lunar Underwing (Omphaloscelis lunosa) 3
2299 Mouse Moth (Amphipyra tragopoginis) 1
2306 Angle Shades (Phlogophora meticulosa) 1
2361 Rosy Rustic (Hydraecia micacea) 13
2364 Frosted Orange (Gortyna flavago) 9
2477 Snout (Hypena proboscidalis) 2
0819 Scrobipalpa costella
2264 Yellow-line Quaker (Agrochola macilenta)
5 comments:
I was sorely tempted to leave work today. My twitching days are all but over, but Sharp-tailed Sand is one I've always wanted to see. It would be my 400th species (I really should have got out more a long while ago). Maybe later in the week if it sticks (unlikely!).
I see you're now on MapMate - good choice I reckon. Some great built in queries which will be very useful for pulling up facts and figures quickly. Only problem I have is being disciplined enough to keep it up to date through the season - usually have a couple of weeks somewhere that I have to catch up. It has species tables for pretty much everything, though I have to say the birds are a bit out of date with current systematics (or at least were last time I checked).
Cracking sketch Stewart and congrats on adding to your brit list.
You obviously had better views of it than I did!
My first real lifer this year ( not counting Sykes's I suppose?).
Cheers Dean.
Ian, lucky break when peregrine pushed bird next to us.
ditto on the sketch Stuart, captured the bird as it really was (through a high powered scope!)
Post a Comment