Saturday 1 October 2016

American double...

With news of a Baird's Sandpiper turning up at Boulmer last night, we headed straight there this morning, at least once we'd taken delivery of  a new wardrobe!

On the way there we were disappointed to hear that it had been flushed by a Peregrine however on arrival in the car park we were told that it was back. We started walking along the path towards its favoured stretch of beach when a microlite came over, flushing all the birds again.

Thankfully it wasn't long until the Dunlin starting coming back in, and soon the juvenile Baird's Sandpiper had joined them. We enjoyed some great scope views of before the Peregrine returned scaring off all the birds again and the Baird's didn't return while we were there. I was really pleased to add this species to my British list after spending a whole day one step behind a Baird's Sand on Teesside in 2012. Other birds seen in the area included 4 Pale-bellied Brent Geese flying north and 3 Mediterranean Gulls.

We still had some time to spare so headed south to the patch in Druridge Bay for a few hours. The Spotted Redshank which we had missed last weekend was back on the Budge Fields along with 3 Black-tailed Godwits, 2 Ruff, a Greenshank, Little Egret and at least 500 Pink-footed Geese.

Finally we called in at the north pool at Chevington. Initially I was most interested in the number of Pintail, with at least 22 present today, but then I picked up a wader feeding on small patch of mud on the west side and realised it was a juvenile Pectoral Sandpiper - our second american wader of the day. A Wood Sandpiper then appeared feeding alongside it and a Scaup was on the water.

The batteries in my digiscoping camera were all dead when I took it out of the bag this morning, so I had to resort to phonescoping to get any photos.

PWC 2016
Species: 160
Points: 216


Baird's Sandpiper
Video best viewed in HD at 1080p

Pectoral Sandpiper - the worst photo I've ever put on my blog?? Although I think with the help of the video you can just about see what it is!?
Peregrine hunting waders (taken with the DSLR)

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